USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut, Volume II, 1760-1880 > Part 33
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pastor-Mr. Seth Grosvenor alone advising delay. In the brief interval preceding ordination others became dissatisfied. Mr. Dodge manifested at times an alarming license in speech and conduct, and unfavorable reports concerning him came from abroad, so that when the ordaining council was convened, April 19, 1792, a small number of "aggrieved brethren " appeared before it and objected to the ordina- tion of the candidate, on charges of disregard to truth, neglect of duty, irreverent application of Scripture and unbecoming levity. The Council was greatly perplexed and troubled. The engaging manners of Mr. Dodge, and the warm attachment of a large majority of the church and congregation, pleaded strongly in his favor, and yet there was evident ground for distrust and apprehension. Decision was deferred till July, and then referred to a special Council of thirteen ministers and delegates, nine of whom were to be chosen by the friends of Mr. Dodge and four by the opposition. The Reverends Jos. Huntington, Joseph Sumner, Josiah Dana, Timothy Stone and Jabez Chickering were invited from abroad, together with several of the county ministers. The council assembled September 4. and after four days' session was satisfied that Mr. Dodge hnd been guilty of a culpable disregard to truth, irreverent application of Scripture and behavior unbecoming the gentleman and Christian minister." and. as it was of great importance that a minister should be of good repute, they were unanimously of opinion that they could not proceed to ordination. In cordial and paternal love they earnestly besought him to comply with this result in the true tenor of it, and by the grace of God endeavor to maintain that Christian spirit, and live that exemplary and holy life that every obstacle that might impede his usefulness might be removed, and that all the excellent and amiable talents and accomplishment with which God had been pleased to favor him might be improved in the future to eminent and most important purposes in his day and generation." Mr. Dodge demeaned himself through the trial with the utmost propriety, accepted the admonition with humility and thankfulness, reflecting upon himself in the various instances alleged, excepting that of falsehood, of which he was not consciously guilty. Dr. Huntington's sympathy and admiration were so aroused in his behalf that in the face of his recent vote he arose and offered, "That it was the opinion of the Council that as Mr. Dodge had accepted the Result, he now stood fair to be improved as a preacher of the Gospel, or as a candidate for the ministry, either here or elsewhere"-an opinion which the Council hastened to disavow, declaring, " That as Dr. Huntington was not desired nor directed to express what he did, the Council had nothing further to say upon it but referred to the Result."
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This Result was but the signal for a "new departure." The friends of Mr. Dodge, encouraged by Dr. Huntington's imprudent suggestion, wholly declined to accept it. Opposition had but heightened their attachment and strengthened their determination. The society held a meeting on the very day the Result was published. and requested Mr. Dodge to continue preaching with them, "as they did not consider the Result of Council as dismissing him from the work of the ministry." The church was called to concur in this invitation, and make provision "in a regular constitutional manner" for another ordaining Council. The meeting was largely attended. Great excite- ment and strong partisan spirit were manifested. A large majority were eager to vote for Mr. Dodge and a new council. The "aggrieved brethren " in the flush of recent triumph saw the fruits of their victory about to be snatched from them. There was no time to be lost ; the danger was imminent. They had but one resource-the negative power allowed to ministers by Saybrook Platform. Believ- ing that Mr. Dodge was unfit for the ministerial office, Mr. Putnam exercised the power thus vested in him and dissolved the meeting without permitting a vote upon the question. This act, if legal, was little less than suicidal The outraged majority, debarred from farther expression and action, indignantly repudiated all connection with the First church and society, and straightway organized as the Reformed Christian Church and Congregation in Pomfret. A satisfactory covenant was hastily drawn up and adopted, and divine service insti- tuted in friendly private houses. The young minister thus released from previous restrictions, was more eloquent and fascinating than ever. Crowds flocked to the new places of worship, and the old meeting-house and minister were almost deserted. But twelve male members were left in the church, i. e. Rev. Aaron Putnam, pastor, Oliver, Asa, Seth, Ebenezer and John Grosvenor, John and John HI. Payson, Caleb Hayward, Josiah Sabin, Simon Cotton and Jabez Denison. In their distress and perplexity these bereaved and aggrieved brethren could only resort to that unfailing bahn for every wound-" the venerable Consociation of Windham County." Sixteen pastors with their delegates convened at the house of Mr. Putnam, December 21, "to hear, advise and determine upon the unhappy difficulties in the First church of Pomfret." The good ministers found their powers extremely limited. They could indeed "hear and advise," but "determine" nothing. The seceding church-members had wholly withdrawn from their jurisdiction. Mr. Dodge scouted their citation to appear before them and declared himself in no respect amenable to the Consociation of Windham County, and "no more
35
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under their control and jurisdiction than under the control and juris- diction of the Bishop of London." They could only express their deep sympathy and concern, and solemnly enunciate what everybody knew before-" that it was fully implied in the Result of the late Council that they viewed it highly inexpedient for Mr. Dodge to continue to officiate as a candidate in this place after the publication of said Result."
These " results," and full accounts of the other proceedings in Pom- fret, were speedily published in the Windham County Herald, and serveral state newspapers, exciting much remark and interest. Their bearing upon one of the vital questions of the day gave them especial importance at this juncture. The Ecclesiastic Constitution of Con- necticut, had become extremely unpopular. Zephaniah Swift of Windham, the ablest lawyer in Eastern Connecticut, had attacked it with great vehemence, incurring thereby the reprobation of the orthodox clergy. Several of the Windham County ministers had deemed it their duty to oppose his election to Congress upon this ground, and had stigmatized him in their pulpits as a scoffer and free- thinker. Swift was far too keen sighted to neglect such an opportunity to repay them for this injury and expose the arbitrary assumptions of Saybrook Platform. Having suffered severely himself from what he deemed the injustice of the clergy, his personal sympathies were also strongly called out in behalf of this new victim. Upon the publica- tion of the result of the consociation in the Windham Herald, Swift rushed at once to the defence of Mr. Dodge, pronouncing the charges against him, " false, scandalons and malicious," and the power arrogated by the consociation in its late inquiry " more unwarrantable and danger- ous than that exercised by the pretended successors of St. Peter." Explanations and defence in behalf of that body urged by Dr. Cogswell, Rev. Thomas Brockway and Samuel Perkins, only called out more vehement denunciations. The attempt of the eonsociation thus to adjudicate was " an open attack upon religions liberty and the rights of conscience." The act of Mr. Putnam in dissolving a lawful assembly, and " nullifying the voice of the church by his single voice, his sovereign negative, was a most conspicnons instance of the arbi- trary power vested in ministers by that celebrated code of ecclesiastic jurisprudence, known by the singular appellation of SAYBROOK PLAT- FORM." Hard indeed was the situation of the people of Pomfret, to have a minister, who could do nothing but defeat them from obtaining another. Was it not time for people to look about and see whether "such despotism was founded in Scripture, in reason, in policy, or on the rights of man ! A minister by his vote, by his single voice,
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may negative the unanimous vote of the church ! Are ministers com- posed of finer clay than the rest of mankind, that entitles them to this preeminence ? Does a license to preach transform a man into a higher order of beings and endow him with a natural quality to govern ? Are the laity an inferior order of being's fit only to be slaves and to be governed ? Is it good policy for mankind to subject them- selves to such degrading vassalage and abject submission ? Is the exercise of such a power compatible with the equal rights-the unalien- able birth-right of man ? To these questions the answer is obvious to every capacity not hoodwinked by ecclesiastical influence. Reason, common sense, and the Bible with united voice proclaim to all man- kind, that they are all born free and equal; that every member of a church or christian congregation must be on the same footing in respect of church government, and that the CONSTITUTION which delegates to one the power to negative the vote of all the rest, Is SUBVERSIVE OF THE NATURAL RIGHT OF MANKIND AND REPUGNANT TO THE WORD OF GOD !"
The force of this powerful attack was greatly weakened by the accompanying abuse and personalities. Dr. Cogswell's meek expos- tulation was " a miserable and wretched performance," and his ejecula tory prayer for the forgiveness of his opponent, " an act of profanity and impiety." The Reverends Eliphalet Lyman and Moses C. Welch, who hurried to the defence of their disabled brethren and the Results, were impaled with greater force and fury. Both these ministers had distinguished themselves by active opposition to Swift, and most joy- fully did he seize the opportunity to punish them. Every derisive and opprobrions epithet was heaped upon them. They were charged with deceit, frand, suppression and destruction of evidence, slander and political intrigue. Mr. Lyman was the Don Quixote, Mr. Welch, the Bully of the consociation. Dodge was the innocent victim of clerical revenge and malice ;" a young man of superior genins and merit suffering from the danger of the private assassin. "a shining ornament of the clerical profession, a second Luther battling against ecclesiastic despotism." The ministers in reply returned his compli- ments with interest. Swift was pronounced by Mr. Welch to be " destitute of delicacy, decency, good manners, sound judgment, honesty, manhood and humanity ; a poltroon, a cat's paw, the infamous tool of a party, a partisan, a political weather-cock and a rag-a-muffin." His remarks "if brought into one view, would be the greatest piece of nonsense, inconsistency and boobyism ever thrown together." He was called a promoter of vice and a Deist, and not only dubbed a fool in their own words, " but had mustered and applied to him every text
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of Scripture wherein they could find that epithet." This disgraceful controversy was carried on for years in the columns of The Windham Iltrald, both sides indulging in the most unscrupulous abuse and vituperation. Every phase of the Dodge affair was paraded before the public. Depositions maintaining or disproving the charges alleged against him were sought out and published. Attacks and rejoinders were then gathered into pamphlets and carried all over the county.
While this newspaper war was waging Pomfret was given over to discord and confusion. The Catholic Reformed church and its pastor were indeed prospering beyond the most sanguine expectation of its supporters. Dodge was the hero of the day ; the champion of popular rights and free religion : the representative and apostle of a new ministerial dispensation. "The reign of long faces had passed." Ministers were now to act and talk like other men, "and unite with them in mirth, festivity and amusement." The old Punitan blueness and austerity were to be superseded by good fellowship and universal jollity. " God was best served by merry hearts and cheerful voices." In that period of religious deadness these views and sentiments set forth by an eloquent and graceful speaker, were exceedingly attractive. The disciples of free religion could not have asked for a more eligible leader than this elegant and accomplished young minister, who could charm all hearts with religious rhapsodies, and dance. drink and joke with equal acceptance. A great congregation gathered around him. Many of the leading men in Pomfret united with the church. Its creed was simple and evangelical-its members taking the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as their sole and sufficient rule of faith and practice, and engaging to walk together as a christian society in the faith and order of the Gospel. Full liberty of inter- pretation was allowed. All knotty points of doctrine were discreetly ignored. No provision was made for administering discipline or for associating with other churches. Dr. Waldo gives these reasons for signing this agreement :-
" I. Having examined with carefulness, find it to be founded on that great Christian scale which unites mankind in the finely-polished goklen chain of equality and brotherly love, and cannot make any material objection to the mode and principles which it is designed to inculcate.
2. My only brother has signed it after due consideration, and I wish to worship and get to Heaven with my brother."
The first publie act of the new society, December 28, 1792. was to invite Mr. Oliver Dodge to settle as its minister, and in the following February he was ordained over it. So strong was the feeling against him that ministers of good standing shrank from the responsibility of
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introducing him into the ministry, and of many invited only the Rev. Isaac Foster, his sons, and son-in-law-all of doubtful orthodoxy- assisted in the ordaining services. This ministerial reprobation only increased the fervor of his adherents. His personal friends elung to him with unwavering fidelity. His levities and indiscretions, which all were forced to acknowledge, were but the irrepressible exuberance of a free and generous spirit and were more than compensated by his ingenuous confessions of wrong and great social attractions. The newspaper controversy and Swift's avowed championship gave him great notoriety, and attracted many hearers from abroad. The old Grosvenor House in which his church now worshipped, could hardly contain the congregation. No minister in the County had so wide a popularity. Some of the most respectable families in Brooklyn, Abington Parish, Woodstock, Thompson and Killingly, left the churches of their former attendance and united with the Reformed church of Pomfret. The young men of Canterbury attempted to organize a new society upon this attractive model. But while the masses were thus carried away by the fascinations of the popular preacher, a small but powerful minority were banded together against him. Deacons Oliver Grosvenor and Simon Cotton, old Esquire John Grosvenor, Captain Seth and Ebenezer Grosvenor, Esq., Josiah Sabin, town clerk, the Paysons and Caleb Hayward, were among the eleven faithful disciples who clung to their ancient church and minister. They were supported and encouraged by the ministry of the County, and sober men in the neighboring towns. The Windham County Associa- tion justified Mr. Putnam in opposing the measures of the majority of the church for ordaining Mr. Dodge, and declared that his dissolution of the church meeting amounted to nothing more than would neces- sarily have followed had the church been allowed to vote, in which case he would have left them and they would have been incapable of any further proceedings. That the majority had any rights in the case was a matter that they did not even take into discussion. They also justified the aggrieved brethren in refusing to attend the ministrations of Mr. Dodge, and encouraged them in maintaining public worship by themselves, " manifesting great freedom in assisting Mr. Putnam to supply the pulpit and administer the sacrament." An attempt made by the Reformed Society to obtain possession of the house of worship was unsuccessful, the Windham Court deciding " that Mr. Putnam's adherents were the First Ecclesiastic Society and had a right to the society property." This legal action and decision only made the con- troversy more bitter. Friendly intercourse between the contending parties was wholly suspended. Brothers, relatives and life-long friends
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became as strangers and enemies. Even the children of these families joined in the quarrel, and mocked and jeered each other as " Dodge-ites " and "anti-Dodge-ites." The controversy was carried into town elec- tions. Opponents of Mr. Dodge were excluded from office. A flaming Dodge-ite was elected town elerk in place of Josiah Sabin, who left this parting record on the town book :-
" Here ends the services of a faithful servant of the public, who was neglected for no other reason than because he could not DODGE δΈ‰ ."
Woodstock was also implicated in this famous controversy. Mr. Lyman was one of the most active opponents of Mr. Dodge, but many members of his society were carried away by the prevailing infatuation. Some of these admirers wished him to preach in their own meeting-house on Woodstock Hill, and made known their desire to Mr. Lyman. Mr. Russel of Thompson had complied with a similar intimation, and had himself attended the services to see that no harm came of it, but the Woodstock minister was made of "sterner stuff" and promptly referred the matter to the committee of the society, " after which he would be ready to signify his mind thereon." One member of this committee "did not object to the proposed lecture." and without waiting more formal permission, notice was given on the following Sabbath after the close of service by the singing leader, "that the next Thursday would be a singing meeting in the meeting- honse, and that the Rev. Mr. Dodge would attend and preach there." Mr. David Holmes, one of the society committee, was there- upon dispatched to Pomfret to represent to Mr. Dodge the minds of the minister, and the majority of the church and committee, and request him "not to come." Mr. Dodge received him with his accustomed ease and urbanity : listened to his "very lengthy and earnest expostulation" with the utmost politeness, but as he was " under some engagements believed he must go over, as he did not choose to disappoint his good friends at Woodstock. And whether he preached or not. he should get a mug of flip, and a good dinner." Accordingly upon the appointed Thursday, November 7, 1793, Mr. Dodge galloped over to Woodstock, and with four gentlemen of the society called upon Mr. Lyman and asked his presence and assistance at the lecture. Mr. Lyman expressed his willingness to conform to the wishes of any of his people when he could do so consistently with order and regularity, but in this instance was constrained to make objections, and further asked Mr. Dodge whether he thought upon such an invitation he had a right to preach in the meeting-house. Mr. Dodge replied with his usual smiling andacity, "that he had as good a right to preach in that meeting-house as Mr. Lyman had, and that
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Mr. Lyman had no more right to the pulpit than he had to the common or any other place." Repairing to the meeting-house, he found a goodly number of hearers collected : the singers with their leader in their accustomed place, Major Elijah Williams and many other prominent Woodstock gentlemen, and at once commenced the service. Captain Jonathan Morse, another of the society committee, was present with a written remonstrance from the pastor, and at the close of the first singing arose and attempted to read it to the congre- gation, but voice and courage failing, he broke down with the first sentence and hastily withdrew to report his ill success to Mr. Lyman. That gentleman instantly hastened with Captain Morse to the meeting- house, and finding Mr. Dodge at prayer, they quietly walked up the aisle and seated themselves in the ministerial pew till the close of that exercise, when Mr. Lyman arose, and, remarking that he had something to communicate to the society, read a formal remonstrance, stating his objections to the present procedure. after which both gentlemen "walked moderately out of the meeting-house," and Mr. Dodge completed his service without farther interruption. In punishment for this offense, Mr. Lyman and Captain Morse were both indicted for high crime and misdemeanor in disturbing a religious assembly, " by violently and repeatedly walking across said meeting-house," and "by impeaching and scandalizing the people so met and the Rev. Oliver Dodge then performing said public worship," and in spite of the efforts of their friends and of their counsel, Colonel Dyer, they were found guilty and sentenced to pay as high a fine as the law would allow. The case was appealed and carried on up to the Supreme Court, where, after a full investigation, the judgment of the Woodstock justice was set aside and Mr. Lyman and Captain Morse justified and acquitted. Every detail of this affair was published in the Windham Herald, together with a most ridiculous and exaggerated version of it by Captain Swift, who embraced the opportunity to cover Mr. Lyman with derision and invective, pronouncing his remonstrance "an infringement upon religious liberty, and the most consummate piece of folly."
This breach and cotroversy continued till near the close of the century. For more than six years Mr. Dodge maintained his ascendancy and his church grew and flourished, while the old mother church of Pomfret withered and wasted. Even some of the faithful eleven were lost to it. Captain Seth Grosvenor and his large and influential family removed to New York State, others were set aside by age and increasing infirmities, so that but a feeble remnant repre- sented the church and supported the invalid pastor. Yet though
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"cast down" they were not quite "destroyed." Through all these weary years the faithful few maintained the stated Sabbath service in the great desolate meeting-honse, the deacons praying and reading the sermons prepared by the speechless pastor, who cheered them by his presence and silent participation in their worship. The piety and faith of Mr. Putnam gave him great strength in this day of trial, and enabled him to impart courage and consolation to his followers. Deprived of his voice, he became more ready with his pen. "His written messages of love and faithfulness were passing daily to families and individuals of his parish." In the darkest hour he saw a light beyond the clond and believed that all would yet be well. In compliance with the advice of the Assoication they made no attempt to censure or discipline those who had gone from them,-but endeavored to manifest "a mild, gentle and forbearing temper and deportment, hoping by such measures to effect their return and coalition,"-and their patience and forbearance were at last most signally rewarded. Satiate with success, the popular idol found his position irksome. With all "his excellent and amiable talents and accomplishments," he was in truth one of the most shameless profligates that ever disgraced the Christian pulpit and profession. Large as was the liberty allowed him by the laxity of the times and the blind partiality of his friends, it was all insufficient. Yielding to reckless impulse, he ceased to maintain the semblance of outward deceney and gave himself up to dissipation. After a week's drunken revelry, driving round openly from one low tavern to another, and even delighting ribald auditors by offering blasphemous prayers for a glass of liquor, he had the effrontery to enter his pulpit and attempt to conduct the usual Sabbath worship, -but the end had come. The "innocent victim of clerical malice," the " second Luther," the brilliant young man, who had gained so high a position and wrought so much mischief, was slain by his own folly and wickedness. Attempting to speak he fell prostrate upon his pulpit, utterly overcome by the effect of his drunken orgies. The eyes of his infatuated followers were opened at once and forever. Never was fall more instant, more final. Of the crowds who had followed him, not one adhered to him or attempted to defend him. At a meeting of the Reformed Church of Pomfret, July 4, 1799, "upon complaint exhibited and notified to Mr. Oliver Dodge. that he had been guilty of repeated instances of intemperance in the use of spiritnous liquor or strong drink, and of indecent if not profane language in the course of one month last past-
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