USA > Connecticut > Connecticut in transition: 1775-1818 > Part 4
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The efforts of president and faculty were telling. As early as 1797 the students organized a Moral Society to curtail swearing and gaming, and to stimulate religion by earnest debate. The universal descent of man from Adam, necessity of divine revelation, nature of miracles, truth of Scripture proved frequent subjects for discussion.
Yet the democratic year 1800-1801 has been generally considered the low mark, almost the dead line, of Yale's Christianity. However this may be, it was immediately followed by a revival, with Yale and New
41 George P. Fisher, Life of Benjamin Silliman, I, 49, 52, 84-86; Sketch of Sher- man, pp. 6, 17; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, V, 41-45.
42 Fisher, Silliman, I, 22, 150. Cf. Dexter, Biographical Sketches, IV, 4; Sixth of August Festival, p. 8.
43 Fisher, Church of Christ, p. 25; Benjamin Silliman, Eulogium, p. 19; Wright, Two Centuries, p. 53; Dwight, Decisions of Questions, pp. 111 ff .; Beecher, Auto- biography, I, 43; Stokes, Memorials, I, 214-277.
44 Greene, Religious Liberty, pp. 410-412; Dexter, Biographical Sketches, I, 523-529; Arthur Goodenough, The Clergy of Litchfield County, p. 26.
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CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818
Haven heading a religious movement destined to sweep Connecticut and the greater part of New England.45 With great satisfaction Dwight witnessed the formal conversion of eighty men out of the total enroll- ment of one hundred and sixty students. Silliman wrote to his mother:
Yale College is a little temple, prayer and praise seem to be the delight of the greater part of the students, while those who are still unfeeling are awed into respectful silence.46
The Linonian and Brothers debating clubs were transformed into centers of religious exhortation and prayer. It was even said that the graduating class, on separating, signed an agreement to pray for one an- other on a certain hour of the day. Even the unfriendly Bishop Asbury testified to a spirit of religious enquiry among the students who, he said, came "like other very genteel people" to mock and deride, but were in the end affected.47 Henceforth there was no danger of a pagan Yale, though Congregationalism within Yale, as throughout the state, re- mained militant during Dwight's whole administration, with revivals in 1808, 1813, and 1815. In 1818, shortly after the election of President Day, John M. Duncan of Glasgow, a shrewd observer and Presbyterian of no uncertain hue, found flourishing Moral, Missionary and Bible Societies, and heard a professor hammering away at Hume.48
In stamping out irreligion, a partial critic would incline to the view that President Dwight incidentally propagated the federalist system of politics, which was only natural with federalism the politics of the godly and of the Standing Order in church and state; and he was its clerical prophet. To a rigid Congregationalist, a Democrat and a deist were inseparable. Republicans were inclined to be less charitable, charging Yale with being a "laboratory of church and state," a "Presbyterian manufactory," and an engine capable of much good, yet busied in teach- ing boys that liberty is license, and toleration is deism. "Pope" Dwight, as the president was universally known by the Republicans, was ar- raigned not, as Federalists declared, because he preached Christianity,
45 Goodrich, "Revivals of Religion in Yale College" in Quarterly Review, February, 1838; F. H. Foster, A Genetic History of New England Theology, p. 279; Fisher, Church of Christ, pp. 33 ff., appendix, p. 82; Wright, Two Centuries, PP· 55 ff.
46 Fisher, Silliman, p. 83; ibid., p. 33, for corroborative testimony by Dr. Noah Porter. Cf. Payne H. Kilbourne, Sketches and Chronicles of Litchfield, pp. 144-145. 47 Journals, III, 66.
48 Travels, I, 120, 148.
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THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AFTER 1801
but because, an ardent partisan, he preached politics.49 Dwight's mission in the College had been a success. Its seeds bore greater fruit, his in- fluence extending beyond the academic walks to the most distant con- fines of the state. The year 1801 marked a turning-point in the religious tone of the community.
3. The Religious Revival After 1801
The year 1801 witnessed the beginning of Jefferson's administration, which soon dispelled the worst forebodings of the orthodox Federalist party of Connecticut. Meeting houses still stood, the Bible was secure, and religion was no worse off, even though an "atheist" sat in the presi- dential chair. Republicanism in office became so cautiously conservative that one wonders if the genuine "Jacobin" was not somewhat disap- pointed. While the clergy decried Republicanism to the end, it was not with their former violence or success, for no one could longer be deluded with the idea that Republicanism and evil were synonymous, especially as God-fearing Methodists and Baptists were entering the Re- publican party. They then proceeded to attack irreligion and its associ- ated sins directly rather than by belaboring the Republican party. In this they were more successful, for the dissenters generally worked harmoniously toward the same end.
One must qualify this harmony of action, for in the strife for con- verts Baptists and Methodists not infrequently attacked the Standing Order on the grounds that as an undemocratic state church, supported by the forced contributions of the poor, it gave rise to scandal leading to infidelity.50 The settled ministers cringed, but retaliated. Accord- ingly, while sectarian strife was never cast aside, all parties realized that their most dangerous foes were infidelity and irreligion.
The period after 1801 witnessed a gradual rise in the religious and moral life of the state. It was then thoroughly appreciated that the two
49 Republican address, Mercury, Apr. 2, 1816; Abraham Bishop, Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 48; Fisher, Silliman, I, 95. From a few communicants he brought the number up to 200 out of an enrollment of 283. Catalogue for 1817; Silliman, Eulogium, p. 19.
50 John Leland, Sermon (1801); Stanley Griswold, Oration, Sept. 13, 1803.
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CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818
could never be separated, and that irreligion and lack of morality were concomitant.51 With this axiom in mind men set to work to establish religious societies, to encourage revivals and to preach vigorously. The foe became less open in its attack, for infidelity was becoming dishon- orable and hence less bold. Deistic literature still flowed in the old channels, but not unchallenged. Joel Barlow's sudden death in 1812 eliminated the leading native exponent of French philosophy; and poor Tom Paine had died in 1809 in disgrace and poverty with only a few humble friends to follow his corpse to the grave. Paine's end afforded comment for Federalist newspaper paragraphs and texts for many a Sunday sermon. With Paine passed away his already dwindling influ- ence.
During these years there were established four societies which were destined to accomplish much in the coming revival. The Connecticut Bible Society, among whose directors were the leaders of the clergy and of the Federalist party, sent Bibles to the western emigrants and frontiersmen.52 The Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Good Morals furthered the preaching of "moral" sermons (enforced where possible by the regulatory laws) and campaigned against intemper- ance.53 The Domestic Missionary Society for Connecticut and Vicinity was chartered in 1816 for the avowed purpose of building up the waste places.54 The New England Tract Society established a branch about the same time. In accordance with this same charitable interest in their fellowmen there was founded a Deaf and Dumb School in Hartford, the first of its kind in the United States.55 In all these endeavors Fed- eralist leaders were closely associated with the prominent ecclesiastics. The names of Governor John Cotton Smith, Governor John Treadwell,
51 Article on "Public Worship," Courant, Jan. 17, 1810; Beecher, Sermon (1804), p. 17; Rev. Azel Backus, Sermon (1797), p. 9; Rev. Elijah Waterman, Ser- mon (1800), p. 36; Dwight, Sermon (1797), p. 18; Dana, Two Discourses, p. 54; Swift, System of the Laws, II, 323.
52 Courant, May 15, 1811, and annual issues thereafter; Green's Almanack and Register also gives the list of directors for the different years.
53 Courant, May 28, 1816.
54 Courant, July 2, 1816. Hon. John Treadwell published under their auspices A Summary of Christian Doctrine and Practice, designed especially for the use of the people in the New Settlements (Hartford, 1804).
55 Courant, Oct. 22, Dec. 24, 1816, Mar. 25, May 20, 1817; The Portfolio, III, 85, 122. Laurent Clerc, an instructor who had been trained under Abbé Sicard, described the institution, North American Review, VII, 127-136. Material can be found in the sketch of Thomas H. Gallaudet, in Henry Barnard, Memoirs of Teachers, Educators, etc., PP. 97-119.
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THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AFTER 1801
Henry Hudson, General Jedidiah Huntington, Samuel Pitkin, Daniel Wadsworth, Tapping Reeve, Roger Sherman, and many others of the same class and sympathies recur on their lists of trustees. This resulted in strong support for the clergy by throwing the political, social, finan- cial and bureaucratic forces on the side of the church. Needless to say the alignment was unkindly criticized.
Revivals were encouraged, the Congregational clergy cautiously fol- lowing the lead of the Baptist and Methodist enthusiasts,56 with the re- sult that there was a series of revivals, beginning with the year 1801. While chiefly of a local character, those of 1808 and 1813 were of state- wide importance.
Besides, there was the preaching of solemn, sober and sound sermons by prominent divines. These sermons fall into five classes: apologetic sermons, direct onslaughts on infidelity, negative up-building of sec- tarian orthodoxy by attacks on Rome, sermons corrective of morals and sermons of the old Calvinist type, long, orthodox and somber. Rev. Abijah Wines discoursed on Human Depravity, Rev. Ralph Emerson exhorted ministers to beware of social life, to make everything second- ary to the pulpit and to teach not worldly affairs but the Gospel's les- sons.57 Rev. Asahel Hooker's sermon on the Use and Importance of Preaching the Distinguishing Doctrines of the Gospel is typical of the last group. Among the apologetical preachers and writers Dwight stood out foremost, with such discourses as The Dignity and Excellence of the Gospel, The Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testament, A Dissertation on the History, Eloquence, and Poetry of the Bible, and The True Means of Establishing Public Happiness. Lyman Beecher preached his well-known sermon, The Government of God Desirable. Rev. James Dana of Center Church, New Haven, preached on Christi- anity the Wisdom of God, and There is no reason to be ashamed of the Gospel. Rev. Ebenezer Marsh delivered an oration on the Truth of the Mosaic History of the Creation. The lexicographer, Noah Webster, wrote eruditely on The Peculiar Doctrines of the Gospel Explained and Defended. Bishop John Henry Hobart of New York preached in Trin- ity Episcopal Church, New Haven, on The Moral and Positive Benefits of the Ordinances of the Gospel. This list might be indefinitely ex-
56 It is impossible to give full credit to the itinerant preachers, for their ser- mons rarely found their way into print. On the other hand, the printed sermons of Congregational ministers are legion.
57 Sermons, May, 1816.
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CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818
tended, so voluminous was the apologetic literature. Such sermons, one should bear in mind, are indicative of religion on the defensive. Min- isters were forced to appeal to reason, not fear as in the past. It is un- necessary to enumerate sermons illustrative of the primitive Puritan's hatred of Rome, though even an occasional address by men of the type of Timothy Dwight and Nathan Strong might be cited.58
Under Dwight's leadership the foremost preachers expatiated on the dangerous fallacy of disbelief. Rev. James Dana preached The Folly of Practical Atheism and The Character of Scoffers; Rev. John Griswold, The Triumph of the Wicked and the Reign of Infidelity, and Rev. Noah Porter, Deism in America. While Rev. William Ellery Channing's ser- mons on Infidelity were delivered in Boston, they were printed and widely circulated in Connecticut. Azel and Charles Backus both preached in like tenor. Others of less prominence aided. They met with such success that Channing could confidently declare in 1813 that irre- ligion was on the decline.59
Among the most noteworthy sermons were those delivered under the auspices of the Moral Society. Rev. Lyman Beecher probably achieved the largest distinction. In a sermon delivered in 1803, The Practicability of Suppressing Vice, by Means of Societies instituted for that Purpose, he described organizations in England and in parts of Massachusetts, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and enlarged upon the need of improvement in Connecticut, giving the following gloomy but rather overdrawn sketch:
The vices which have destroyed other nations are alarmingly prevalent in our own. From a variety of causes, irreligion hath become in all parts of our land, alarmingly prevalent. The name of God is blasphemed; the bible is denounced; the sabbath is profaned; the worship of God is neglected; intem- perance hath destroyed its thousands, and is preparing the destruction of its thousands more; while luxury, with its diversified evils, with a rapidity un- paralleled, is spreading in every direction, and through every class.60
This was supplemented by his discourse on The Government of God Desirable, his best-known sermon, A Reformation of Morals Prac- ticable and Indispensable, and another of constructive rather than de- structive criticism, The Building of Waste Places, which led to the
58 Dwight, in a mildly patriotic Sermon, July 23, 1812; Strong, Sermon, July 23, 1812.
59 Two Sermons, Oct. 24, 1813, p. 7.
60 Beecher, Sermon (1804), p. 19.
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THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AFTER 1801
establishment of the Domestic Missionary Society. In every one of them he presented too dark an outlook, emphasizing the dangers of irreligion, Sabbath-breaking, intemperance and other moral shortcomings. His point of view was necessary to arouse a new conscience.
Rev. Noah Porter hewed along the same path, beseeching a return to Sabbath observance and to the morality, industry, sobriety and peace of the past. His sermon, Perjury Prevalent and Dangerous, must have shocked his auditors. Primarily its purpose was to demonstrate the in- efficiency of the oaths of atheists, deists and Universalists; it indicated that there was among some people an easy attitude toward oath-taking. Rev. Dr. Philip Doddridge printed an old-fashioned dissertation, a Plain and Serious Address to the Master of a Family on the Important Sub- ject of Family Religion. Rev. James Beach was heard on the Immoral and Pernicious Tendency of Error, in which he decried those who countenanced the most invidious attacks upon religion and morality in the way of Sabbath violations.
Some pastors thundered against the all too prevalent intemperance, with drinking nearly universal and dram shops everywhere.61 The tem- perance societies were organized about 1815. Others futilely called upon the officers and electors of the state to enforce the long-neglected moral laws. Dwight and Beecher condemned duelling, a practice to which Alexander Hamilton's death in 1804 had drawn national attention.62
The efforts of the ministry were not unavailing, though often mis- directed, for they were not intuitively aware of the changes going on about them. This was well illustrated in their antagonistic attitude to- ward the so-called fashionable pleasures, such as balls, dancing, the drama, theatrical presentations, wax shows or travelling lions. They
61 An "Address to the Churches and Congregations of the Western district of Fairfield" gave statistics showing a national consumption of seven and a third gal- lons of ardent spirits for persons over six years of age. Samuel Orcutt, History of Torrington, p. 204; David D. Field, History of Haddam, p. 10; Sarah E. Hughes, History of East Haven, p. 100; Larned, Windham County, II, 414; Loomis and Cal- houn, The Judicial and Civil History of Connecticut, p. 55; Theodore Dwight, History of Connecticut, pp. 440-441; Duncan, Travels, II, 322-323; cf. Charles Francis Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, II, 783-794. One is as- tounded at the number of distilleries and retailers of liquors. Samuel Church, Address at Litchfield (1851), p. 68; Pease and Niles, Connecticut Gazetteer, pp. 36, 37, 43, 101, 143.
62 Rev. Aaron Dutton, Sermon (1815); Rev. Simon Backus, Sermon (1804); Rev. William Lyman, Sermon (1806); Swift, System of the Laws, II, 325-327. Others felt that the "blue laws" were not relaxed. Duncan, Travels, II, 118; Larned, Windham County, II, 225.
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CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818
were inclined to look backward to the Puritan fathers around whom a legend had grown, only to canonize them by comparison with their descendants, who saw less sin in enjoying themselves and in ignoring various Sabbatical laws. Clerical interests and training were too localized to give them a broad visionary view of the future; yet in holding up the "ideal Puritan," these clergymen set a standard of ethics and religion which offered a stimulating corrective to their people. The competition of the dissenting sects and fear of infidelity aroused the Congregational- ist and revived the religious spirit.
Such was the condition when complete toleration was guaranteed in 1818. At the time it was feared that this would be injurious to religion, or rather to Congregationalism, but the future determined otherwise. Rev. Lyman Beecher spoke oracularly: "But truly we do not stand on the confines of destruction. The mass is changing. We are becoming an- other people." 63
4. The Liberalizing of Calvinism
Contemporary with the growth of infidelity there was a liberalizing movement which looked toward the development of a sort of modernist "nominal Christianity." It came as a result of the increasing spirit of toleration and as a protest against the severe Calvinism of the fathers. Many were living up to a self-imposed Christian standard without iden- tifying themselves with any of the diverse sects. Beecher described them as men who accepted "moral sincerity" as the counterpart of grace; and Stiles, whose own toleration allowed him to meet as friends men of any or no creed, characterized these disinterested, passive Christians as "stay- at-home Protestants." 64 They were men who agreed with the Anglican Bishop Warburton that "orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is an- other man's doxy."
This building of a bulwark of nominal Christianity outside church walls was one result of the dread of atheism to which Zephaniah Swift gave utterance in that first American law text, A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut (1795):
63 Autobiography, I, 261.
64 Diary, III, 67.
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THE LIBERALIZING OF CALVINISM
The being of a God is so universally imposed on the human mind, that it seems unnecessary to guard against a denial of it by human laws. Atheism is too cold and comfortless, to be a subject of popular belief.
In another chapter he succinctly expressed the new tendency:
Men begin to entertain an idea, that religion was not instituted for the purpose of rendering them miserable, but happy, and that the innocent en- joyments of life are not repugnant to the will of a benevolent God. They be- lieve there is more merit in acting right than in thinking right; and that the condition of men in a future state will not be dependent on the speculative opinions they may have adopted in the present.65
This was carrying to its logical conclusion the doctrine of private judgment with which the most orthodox would have concurred. Thus Rev. James Dana wrote:
Well informed protestants are at length generally agreed in allowing to all the right of private judgement, which is the basis of the reformation, and the only principle upon which Christianity can be defended.66
It was a logical conclusion, but one to which a Congregationalist of the old stamp could not be expected to subscribe. Rev. Elijah Waterman grieved that:
The stern virtues, the resolute and sober system of conduct which marked the progress of our Fathers, are now softening down and wearing into a mechanical smoothness of behaviour, and what is infinitely more per- nicious, a debilitated and unresisting pliancy of principle and morals.67
Rev. James Beach feared the dangerous compromise between the friends of error and irreligion who baited others with the saying: "It is no matter what men believe; if they are but sincere in their belief." 68 Judge Samuel Church would hesitate to credit the oath of a man who habitually absented himself from the public worship of God.69
Rev. Dr. Holmes of Cambridge wrote in 1811 to John Cotton Smith:
A religion under the flattering yet imposing name of rational is substi- tuted for the religion of the cross. Mysteries are exploded. Christianity, it is conceded, ought to be believed in general; while it would seem, nothing need be believed in particular. As a whole it is worthy of all acceptation; but the several parts which compose it may be rejected ad libitum. Religious opin-
65 System of the Laws, I, 145. II, 322.
66 Two Discourses, p. 12.
67 Sermon (1800), p. 37.
68 Sermon (1806), p. 16.
69 Rev. Jonathan A. Wainwright, Discourse (1867), pp. 25-26.
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CONNECTICUT IN TRANSITION: 1775-1818
ions are different; and it is no matter what a man believes, provided he acted right ... . While it tolerates with the utmost benignity all the innovations of the Priestleian school, it brands with opprobrium the tenets of the Puritans.70
Such was the half-way point where many found themselves as a re- sult of the conflict between infidelity and Calvinism, and to which a near-sighted but well-meaning minister might point in refuting infidel- ity by emphasizing only the essentials of Christianity. The sermon An Enquiry into the State of the Churches, by Rev. Samuel P. Williams, illustrates this to perfection:
Good men may differ about the best form and place of religious confer- ence; but I am bold in Christ to say, good men cannot soberly differ about the utility and pleasure of religious conference of some form.71
Such a throwing-down of the sectarian bars naturally resulted in un-churching many people. The old-fashioned doctrines were being relegated to the background. The preachers of such doctrines were un- popular. This was the condition which caused the Rev. Mr. Andrews of Windham to select the text, "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you labor in vain," for his retirement sermon, which overflowed with the tragic discouragement of the helpless but blameless old man.72 It was this tendency to cater to the popular desire, to shade over the harsh doc- trines of the fathers and to preach a "moderate Calvinism" that Jona- than Edwards, Jr., thundered against in his calls for a converted minis- try, the plain preaching of the Gospel, and less practical and more religious sermons.73 Edwards fought a life-long losing battle; for time and the new spirit were opponents too powerful even for his steel. Nor was Lyman Beecher to be more successful in his demand that ministers be not timid in preaching doctrines which offend or in enforcing church discipline for fear of parish stability lest they further the cause of infi- delity.
Congregationalism was becoming less rigid and harsh and more hu- manistic. The names of Jonathan Edwards the elder, Samuel Hopkins, Joseph Bellamy, Edwards the younger, Stiles, Dwight and Beecher mark the milestones of this evolution.74
70 Andrews, John Cotton Smith, pp. 67-68.
71 P. 13.
72 Rev. J. E. Tyler, Historical Discourse, pp. 24-26.
73 Sermon (1795).
74 Foster, Genetic History, ch. xii, and Williston Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism have been of assistance.
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ESTIMATE OF CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
5. An Estimate of the Congregational Church Membership
It is impossible to estimate the number of deists or of non-church- goers. This is not strange when one takes into consideration that atheists and deists were classed with felons who, on conviction of denying God, the Scriptures, or the Trinity, were disabled from holding any office, civil, ecclesiastical or military and, if convicted a second time, were de- prived of their judicial rights.75 As there do not seem to have been any convictions, although there were numbers who might easily have been apprehended through informers, the law probably remained a dead- letter. In accordance with the statute of 1784, all residents who did not deposit a certificate of their dissent with the clerk of the ecclesiastical society in which they dwelt were Congregationalists, though at heart they might be deists, Unitarians or atheists. This situation is, of course, characteristic of any community with a state-church.
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