USA > Connecticut > Connecticut in transition: 1775-1818 > Part 22
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The minister, with two or three principal characters, was supreme in each town. Hence the body of the clergy, with a few families of distinction, between whom there was ever a most intimate connection, ruled the whole
18 Travels, IV, 309 ff.
19 Mercury, June 27, 1805.
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State. The loss of this happy influence of the clergy, in this country, is deeply to be regretted, and is to be ascribed to two causes-the increase of knowl- edge, and the growth of opposition to religion. Knowledge has induced the laity to think and to act for themselves, and an opposition to religion has curtailed the power of its supporters.20
By the time of John Adams's election, the Congregationalist clergy had become Federalist almost to a man. Scarcely a deacon could be found to profess openly Republican sentiments.21 This was a situation to be expected when it was impressed upon the minds of the religious that only atheists, immoral men, and an occasional deluded dissenter of no respectability could possibly be a Republican. To be a Jeffersonian Republican and a preacher of Calvinism was a unique position which gained wide notoriety for men who had that unusual distinction.
Rev. Stanley Griswold, a popular preacher of Milford, was reported to be a follower of Jefferson. Of this there was no doubt when he preached at the Wallingford Democratic Jubilee in 1801, against the advice of friends who read the spirit of the times well enough to fear for his future. The sermon was widely printed and created a stir. Gris- wold was thereupon tested as to his orthodoxy by an inquisitorial board. In 1802 he resigned his pastorate, to the sorrow of many of his parish- ioners who failed to sympathize with his "persecution." The difficulty, it was urged, was not that he had meddled in politics, but that his poli- tics were of a brand condemned by the clerical party. By his brother Republicans he was beloved as "the most eminent victim to clerical intolerance." His case was cited on all occasions. Exiled at Walpole, New Hampshire, he established a Democratic paper, The Political Observatory. He later became a national figure, first as secretary of Michigan Territory and then as Senator from Ohio.22
Rev. Whitfield Cowles of Granby was dismissed for his Republi- canism and never re-admitted by the Association.23 Later he entered the Universalist ministry and frequently honored Republican Fourth-of- July celebrations as orator or preacher. A Reverend Mr. M'Knight, for
20 Fourth of July Oration, p. 6.
21 The case of Anson Phelps of Suffield, an ardent Republican and believer in the separation of church and state, was unique enough to deserve a notice in the obituary column. Mercury, July 12, 1804.
22 Kilbourne, Sketches, pp. 82 ff .; Goodenough, Clergy of Litchfield County, pp. 22, 74; Mercury, Aug. 4, 1803; Jan. 9, 1806; June 6, 1808. See "Statement of the Proceedings of the Association of Litchfield County vs. Rev. Stanley Griswold."
23 Mercury, July 9, 1801; Aug. 4, 1803; Robbins, Diary, I, 355, 426.
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the sake of peace, left Greenfield to settle in free New York.24 It was reported that a certain divinity student had been refused a license be- cause of the suspected Republicanism of his father. Federalist clergy refused to exchange pulpits with ministers of whose orthodoxy they were not assured. Republican newspapers championed the "persecuted" and heralded their names, while using their cases to strike home telling criticisms of the politico-religious intolerance and bigotry of the tithed ministry.
The election of 1800 saw the Connecticut clergy drawn up in solid order to prevent the election of Jefferson. They beat what the Republi- cans called "the political tattoo." Politics of no negative type were openly preached from the pulpit. Religion was in danger: "To its rescue," became the cry of these crusaders. The safety of the Bible was jeopardized by American Jacobins. Prayers and sermons became philip- pics against Frenchmen, and against Republicans who were known to dissent from the opinion that all Frenchmen were atheists, murderers, and cannibals. They refused to disassociate Republicanism from Jacob- inism. They felt that it was "as much a matter of conscience to avow their political as their theological tenets." In so doing they intermingled prayer and imprecation, religion and politics. Jefferson now became the "man of sin," despite his honorary degree from Yale. He was described as a fanatical atheist, bent on ruining the church and on destroying pul- pit and Bible.25
Chauncey Goodrich wrote: "Among all the good people of the State there is a horrid idea of Mr. Jefferson. The clergy abominate him on account of his atheistical creed." 26 Robbins jotted down in his diary a thought relative to the possibility of Jefferson's election: "Blessed be God that all things are in his hands, and may he avert such an evil from this country, for His name's sake. I do not believe that the Most High will permit a howling atheist to sit at the head of this nation." 27 His was a representative honest fear that Jefferson's election would be an un-
24 Mercury, Aug. 4, 1803. Rev. Mr. Trumbull of North Haven was quoted as having said that he would prefer to cut off his arm than ordain a Republican. A preacher named Gemmil of New Haven was said to have been driven from his pastorate on political grounds. Mercury, Jan. 9, 1806. Republican clergy were spoken of as that "fellow" or "rascal" rather than by title.
25 Mercury, Aug. 28, 1800; Sept. 24, 1801; Henry Adams, Hist. of the United States, I, 79 ff .; J. T. Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, II, 335 ff .; Robinson, Jeffer- sonian Democracy, pp. 130 ff.
26 George Gibbs, Memoirs of Washington and John Adams, II, 411.
27 Diary, I, 114, 145.
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mitigated evil. It explains in part the boldness of the political pulpit. Bentley wrote in his diary that "the political conduct of the clergy is no where so insolent as in Connecticut." He was quite annoyed to learn that a Southington minister in a Thanksgiving sermon "scrupled not to call the President a debauchee, an infidel and a liar." 28 Furthermore, this was after the election, when discretion checked many utterances.
A sermon which attracted much attention was that of the Rev. Jona- than Bird, delivered first in 1803. The Rev. Mr. Bird noted in an adver- tisement to the printed sermon that no names were mentioned, though, if the Democrats desired to fit themselves to the coat he had cut out, he would raise no objection. He preached as follows:
When we see the restless pursuit of the world; good order disregarded; laws, human and divine, trampled on; religion derided; and its professors made the scoff of the profane-When vice of every kind is rampant, its votaries applauded, and advantaged to lucrative and honorable station, then we justly fear for the safety of our civil and religious liberty.29
The veiled description touched the mark, if one may judge from the heated controversy which it aroused. Like many other sermons, its Biblical quotations were easily interpreted. Yet the most ardent Fed- eralist, if instinctively religious, must have revolted at the use of Scrip- tural quotations for profane purposes.
The hostility of the Congregational clergy toward Republicans be- came more and more bitter. They saw only ruin for the country in the factional struggles, an attempt to bring in Jacobinism and French athe- ism, and to subvert morals. Their fears were no doubt honest. All Eu- rope was sufficiently imbued with the dangers of the French system to enthrone reaction. The Anglican church feared reform for at least a generation. Is it strange that the Connecticut clergyman, always steady, became a deep reactionary? He saw his powerful position weakened by deism and dissent, and noted that deists and dissenters were as a rule Republicans. He noticed that respectable dissenters, the Episcopalians, held aloof from Republicanism and voted for religious men. This only convinced him of the correctnesss of his position. He felt that his in- terest lay with the Federalist party, which represented the wealthy, the
28 Diary, III, 208. See account of federal prosecution of Rev. Thaddeus Osgood, Mercury, Dec. 26, 1805; Apr. 23, 1806.
29 Discourse, Apr. 11, 1803. Controversy between Rev. Richard Ely, from whose pulpit it was delivered, and Gen. Hart. Mercury, June 9, July 21, Aug. 4, 18, 1803.
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well-born and the educated, and guaranteed the stability of the existing order, the relationship of church and state, the ecclesiastical tithe, the sacredness of the clergyman's position, the existing school system, and all that looked toward the security of his class. Under a Republican régime this favored position must fall before the theory of equal rights for all men. Yale might suffer, for an Episcopalian college would be chartered.
No wonder the Congregational clergyman became an ardent parti- san, with conscience and interest leading in the same direction. That conscientious reasons played a part must not be overlooked. Nor must the courage of the reactionary be deprecated, any more than the sober- ing influence of conservatism. According to the Republican idea, the standing clergy saw with worldly eyes merely their own interests and feared innovation for personal reasons.
The partisan zeal of the clergy was stimulated by Abraham Bishop, whose scholarly attainments the Yale authorities recognized when they invited him to deliver the Phi Beta Kappa oration at the commencement of 1800. Not being interested in the planets or in classic lore, he sub- mitted an essay on commercial and banking systems which, on the ad- vice of the clergy, was refused at the last moment. A change of speakers was announced. Bishop thereupon delivered a rival address in one of the churches, which drew fifteen hundred auditors, including women and a few clergy. The erudite, official lecturer proved, by way of comparison, a poor drawing card. The subject of Bishop's oration, "The Extent and Power of Political Delusion," gave him an excellent opportunity to make a stirring political appeal and a vigorous attack on Federalism, the union of church and state, and clerical domination. Steady habits, he pointed out, covered oppression and imposture, and enabled the clergy to prevent the diffusion of truth and a dissolution of the establishment. Of the three classes embarrassing reform, lawyers, Anglo-sympathizers, and clergy, the last were most blameworthy. Their cries that morals, science and religion were in danger, along with their libels on Republi- cans, and the "calling" of atheists in political preaching, made men ir- religious.30 The clergy answered with bitter recriminations. His course
30 Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 419 ff. As Bishop prided himself on his audi- ence, Daggett wrote that an ourang-outang will always draw more spectators than a human being. Three Letters to Abraham Bishop. Robbins noted that he heard Bishop deliver "a very foolish and inflammatory Democratic oration two hours long." Diary, I, 122.
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was an affront to their order, to the church, to the college and all that was venerated. The more grievous their attacks and those of Noah Webster and the Federalist papers, the greater Bishop's popularity in Republican circles became. Invited to deliver the oration at the Walling- ford celebration, he attacked the clerical party with even more viru- lence.
That the clergy exerted a great political influence the honest Fed- eralist did not deny. He considered their labors in maintaining the sta- bility of the old parties as a righteous part of their calling.31 Dr. Morse in his famous Geography described the clergy as an autocratic balance against democracy. Theodore Dwight defended the occasional preach- ing of politics as a bounden duty to thwart partisans who discredit ministers, decry religion, and destroy public worship. President Dwight admitted that there was such a thing as "clerical consequence," but that it was due to their divinely instituted office and their own inherent worth, for they had no power, only "an influence, which every sober man must regard as desirable in any community." 32 In a bitter attack on the administration and the Louisiana Purchase, George W. Stanley described the status of Connecticut's clergy: "They hold no offices, they are poor, they are not active political intriguers or electioneers. They only exert a quiet suffrage. They have preached against dangerous philosophy and infectious infidelity, and if, as the opposition maintained, this is hostile to republican principles, the clergy are not to be blamed." 33
With the Republican national success, the clergy were more secret and careful in exerting their political influence. Democratic orators and writers, recalling their fears, answered that the Bible, the pulpit and the
31 Dwight inconsistently declared that a government by the clergy must be bad, but that the influence of good clergy must be good. Travels, IV, 242. The Courant, edited by Rev. E. Sampson, "one who has assumed the cross, but profes- sionally deserted his master" (Mercury, Sept. 13, 1804), commented: "The demo- cratic newspapers abound with attacks upon the clergy-they, it seems, are to be driven from the exercise of a right not denied to any other citizen. .. . Their char- acters entitle them to different treatment,-good men will not fail to resist this spirit of persecution, against a body of men so justly respectable for their learning, their love of genuine liberty, their virtue and their extensive influence in the promotion of the best interests of society." Oct. 29, 1806. The Middlesex Gazette grieved that the clergy had suffered themselves to be driven from their duty by the impudent clamor of Bishop and Wolcott. Courant, Mar. 26, 1806. Theodore Dwight, Oration (1801), pp. 18 ff.
32 Travels, IV, 406.
33 Oration (1804), p. 13.
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meeting house still stood, and that true religion was as secure as under an Adams. The Mercury reported that "Pope Dwight" had issued a bill prohibiting the preaching of politics for the time being, as his clergy were more zealous than discreet: "Hereafter the political part of the sacerdotal functions will be performed in a less public but more insidi- ous form." 34
Republican writers remarked that political preaching was a thing of the past in Republican towns like North Haven, Stamford, Walling- ford and Suffield. If Republicans were hostile to the clergy or demanded preachers of their own party, it was said that clergymen of Republican towns would have been dismissed by their congregations. That this was not done was evidence that the Republicans were willing to allow them political freedom. They merely asked a minister to obey Christian teach- ings, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's, and to confine himself to preaching the Word. This at least the men contributing to the clergyman's support had the right to demand. It was cynically added that, if God's kingdom was of this world, they should cite chapter and verse in order that men might be aware of the shortcomings of the Episcopalians and more humble dissenters who failed in the full performance of their religious duty.35
Partisans were partisans. Personalities were not spared in attacking the clerical order. "Pope Dwight," as head of what was termed the "presbyterian manufactory," was generally described as the head of the clerical party.36 Ministers like Trumbull, Ely, Beecher and Huntington were regarded as lieutenants, to lead the well-trained cohorts to the election. "Eschines" wrote in 1801: "In the ecclesiastical carcase of Con- necticut, the President of Yale is the grand pabulum, and fountain head of political and religious orthodoxy." 37 Another writer would declare him a Jesuit, if that order had not been suppressed. Another wrote: "Let the 'Pope' take the field at the head of the Black Hussars, and victory
34 July 15, 1803.
35 See issues of Mercury for June 4, July 25, 1801; Apr. 22, 1802; Aug. 4, 1803. Cf. Governor Sullivan's advice to the historian Belknap, an ardent Federalist. T. C. Amory, Life of James Sullivan, II, 56-57.
36 Address to Fairfield Electors, printed in Mercury, Apr. 2, 1816.
37 Mercury, Apr. 30, 1801. James Cary, in a view of the New England Illu- minati, described Dwight: "Active, persevering, and undaunted, he proceeds to direct all political, civil and ecclesiastical affairs." P. 17. See "Luther's" attack on Pope Dwight, Mercury, Sept. 12, 1805; July 26, Sept. 13, 1804; Aug. 1, 1805.
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must declare on his side." Dwight was an able politician and an ardent Federalist, yet charges of his indiscreet activities might easily have been exaggerated. Certainly both he and the college were innocent of the Toryism with which they were charged because Colonel Edward Fan- ning, a British governor and Tory raider under Tryon, happened to have been awarded a degree. Yet this charge was reiterated.38 To Re- publicans, Dwight's salary of $2,000 a year, twice that of the governor, was in itself a scandal. Then Dwight was essentially an aristocrat, caring little for the poor and lowly. This gave the demagogue an excellent opportunity. Dwight's aversion to universal suffrage gained for him the dislike of the disfranchised. On the whole, he left himself rather vulner- able to attack.
The Federalist answered, in defense of the clergy, that those who would overthrow the institutions of the state knew that they must first destroy religion and undermine the popular reverence for the ministry ere they could work their ends. Aside from open attacks, frequent use was made of such expressions as "the chains of clericalism which bind the listless citizen"; "the drum ecclesiastical"; "the clergy always hand in hand with the rich and honorable and well-born"; "abject submis- sion"; "clerical domination"; "a fanatical veneration for a pampered deluding and anti-Christian priesthood renders the people the dupes of their cunning and subservient to their power"; a people "enveloped in superstition"; aristocratic clergy and long-faced preachers with a holier-than-thou air. The state was said to be priest-ridden, with every minister lording it over the commoner who had decided to make his living other than by preaching. It was pointed out how they controlled the college, which was administered by clerical or lay Congregational- ists and taught by a faculty chosen from the faithful. Ministers made of commencement their gathering, banqueting at the scholars' expense. The clerical control of the school system, with Senator Hillhouse super- vising the school fund, was not overlooked. Men questioned why the clergy should be active at the polls or assemble on General Election Day from all parts of the state, to take a leading part in the ceremonies.39
While the excessive number of clergy was intimated, this fact was not emphasized to the extent that one would expect. Statistics could have been used to advantage in strengthening the contention that no-
38 Mercury, July 26, 1804, and afterwards in nearly every attack upon the col- lege. Henry P. Johnston, Yale ... in the American Revolution, p. 109.
39 See Note at end of this chapter.
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where was the actual ratio of ministers to communicants higher.40 This is not to be wondered at with the ministry so revered, comparatively prosperous, and with few rival professional opportunities.41
The political power of the clergy was contested, for some were charged with providing for their sons and sons-in-law while supposed to be at the Lord's work. It was said that men could not rise without their support and favor, to gain which men must be their followers or hypocrites. Bishop thought that nowhere was religious hypocrisy so certain a stepping-stone to political position.42 It was carefully noted that those in high places were closely associated with the ministry. Gov. John Cotton Smith was the son of a clergyman. Senator S. W. Dana was a clergyman's son, as were Chauncey Goodrich, Elizur Goodrich, Tapping Reeve, Thomas Day, John Trumbull and innumerable others. Calvin Goddard married a clergyman's daughter. Samuel Pitkin was a deacon. Gov. John Treadwell wrote tracts. Theodore Dwight, Enoch Perkins and Walter Edwards were described as under clerical control. Such a list could easily be extended by the local genealogist, but for campaign purposes the Republicans felt that they had sufficient mate- rial without extending their researches. The opposition would have found a much harder task in listing men of political importance who were not immediate relatives of clergymen. They could only contend that the Republicans were new men, of little character and no family, but with decided official aspirations. For, while the Republican argu- ment was overstressed, there was sufficient basis for every charge.
Rev. Lyman Beecher frankly disclosed clerical politics in describing the meeting in Judge Baldwin's office to establish a society for "the Suppression of Vice and Promotion of Good Morals." He wrote:
That was a new thing in that day for the clergy and layman to meet on the same level and co-operate. . . . The ministers had always managed things
40 Rev. Eliphalet Pearson, in a sermon at Boston, Oct. 26, 1815, estimated one minister to every thousand of population as ideal, happy in his oblivion of dis- senters. Courant, Mar. 5, 1816. The Mercury (Mar. 26, 1807) felt that 228 Congre- gational clergy were quite enough.
41 Dwight denied that the clergy were forced to farm, save in the new settle- ments. Travels, IV, 436. With the disposal of parish glebe lands after 1810, their lot became harder. Beecher feared that Gospel-preaching was secondary to farming in many cases. "The man," he said, "has become a thriving farmer, an able school- master, a sagacious speculator, but has long since ceased to be a faithful minister of Jesus Christ." Sermon (1814), pp. 12 ff. Salaries averaged $500 in 1817. Courant, Nov. 11, 1817. Dwight knew of few under $250, and believed $400 usual. Travels, IV, 403. Rev. Ralph Emerson received $700. Crissey, Norfolk, p. 157.
42 Address (1801), p. 68.
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themselves, for in those days the ministers were all politicians. They had always been used to it from the beginning. On election day they had a festi- val. All the clergy used to go, walk in procession, smoke pipes, and drink. And, fact is when they got together, they would talk over who should be governor, and who lieutenant-governor and who in the upper house, and their counsels would prevail.
He saw the failure of Federalism in the way David Daggett "wire- worked" Roger Griswold over the clerical, favorite, straight-laced Puri- tan, Treadwell. It was "rank rebellion against the ministerial candidate." The lawyers said, he went on: "We have served the clergy long enough; we must take another man, and let them take care of themselves." 43 A better description of the clerical caucus could not be demanded, nor from one who knew the situation better.
Judge Samuel Church, a member of the Toleration party, in a well- considered statement of judicial tone written about 1850, gave his view of the position of the clergy of the Standing Order prior to 1818:
The whole influence of the State from the beginning had been confined to the Clergy of the Congregational Churches and their adherents. Their in- fluence controlled the elections. Their annual meetings at the election season at Hartford were holden for this and for no other purpose. Appointments to office were not suggested by Caucuses as at present, but by a mutual con- sultation between the Clergy and the party [Federalist] politicians.44
Beecher's Autobiography makes obvious the political activity of the Moral Society. This, it may be added, was the case with the Missionary Society, the Connecticut Bible Society, the New England Tract So- ciety, the Domestic Missionary Society for Connecticut and vicinity, the Ministers' Annuity Society and the Charitable Society. All were "religious institutions" but were charged with being politico-religious in their purposes.45 The connection between church and state was evi-
43 Autobiography, I, 259-261; see also p. 257, a letter to Rev. Asabel Hooker (Nov. 24, 1812), urging that all friends aid before our privileges are lost piecemeal, and that Theodore Dwight be seen. Cf. Beardsley, Episcopal Church, II, 160. Miss Greene well describes their influence over voting: "The clergy of the establishment would get together and talk matters over before the elections, and the parish minister would endeavor to direct his people's vote according to his opinion of what was best for the commonwealth." Religious Liberty, p. 402; cf. ibid., pp. 435 ff.
44 Church Ms.
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