USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > History of the Second church of Christ in Hartford > Part 15
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During the first seven years of this period the admis- sions to the Church were remarkably few. But in the years 1808-9, Hartford was visited with a powerful revival of relig- ion, which also extended far and wide in the State. The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine contains full and interesting accounts of these refreshings, which occasioned great joy in all the churches. Conference meetings were held and both the Presbyterian Societies of Hartford received large acces- sions to their membership. The churches and ministers at this time were always described as Presbyterian.1 About forty persons united with the South Church in 1808, and nearly as many in the year following. Sixteen were added in the year 1810. The additions were, on an average, about five each year during the period from 1810 till 1821, and in
1 As early as 1766 overtures were made to the General Association of Connec- ticut from the Presbyterians in Philadelphia and New York, for conference in meas- ures to preserve their common religious liberties. The Presbyterians and Congre- gationalists were closely drawn together in jealousy of Episcopacy, and by the course of things in the war. Moreover, the contentions in Connecticut had brought odium upon the word Congregational, and gradually the word itself gave way to Presbyterian. The Hartford North Association in 1779 explicitly sanctioned this change in a remarkable resolution, giving information to all whom it may concern, that the "Constitution of the churches in the State of Connecticut, founded on the common usage, and the confession of faith, heads of agreement, and articles of church discipline, adopted at the earliest period of the settlement of this State, is not Congregational, but contains the essentials of . the Presbyterian Church in America, particularly as it gives a decisive power to Ecclesiastical councils."
It is true enough that in adopting the Saybrook Platform, the Connecticut churches embarked in a semi-Presbyterian ark. But the resolution was ridicu- lously false in fact. The "earliest period of the settlement of this State" was not 1708, but 1636, when Congregationalism was pure of Saybrook heads of agreement and articles of discipline.
The aforementioned resolution concluded with this sentence : "Sometimes, in- deed, the associated churches of Connecticut are loosely and vaguely, though im- properly, termed Congregational."
It looks as though the "established order " might have gone entirely over to Presbyterianism, in truth as in name, but for the dissenters and separatists whom it il1-treated.
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the latter year sixty-five were received into the church. The practice of "owning the covenant" seems to have ceased here in the year 1809.
Among those admitted in 1808 was Thomas Tileston, who was elected deacon in 1809, in place of Thomas Sey- mour, who resigned at the age of seventy-four years. Deacon Tileston obtained a good report. He was, by his goodness, gentleness, and grace, a pillar in the Church for many years, and his pious ministrations were incessant and fruitful.
In the year 1814 the Church took measures to provide for its religious use's a much-needed chapel. The Society seems to have taken no official part in this enterprise. No mention of it appears in its records. The Church appointed a committee consisting of Deacon Tileston, Russell Bunce, and Erastus Flint to solicit subscriptions for the chapel, to select a suitable site for it, and to superintend its con- struction. In the course of two years it was completed, and the Legislature was petitioned to authorize the Church, as a corporation, "to receive a conveyance of and to hold the Chapel lately built on the north side of Buckingham Street, and a lease of the grounds on which said Chapel stands, and any other estate, real or personal, not exceeding two thou- sand dollars."
The year 1818 marks the origin of the Sunday-school in Hartford. At that time there were but four churches in the city, the First and Second Congregational, Christ Church, and the First Baptist. On the 20th of April, a meeting was held to consider the propriety of establishing Sunday-schools. Rev. Dr. Flint was chosen chairman, and Seth Terry, Esq., clerk.
The "Hartford Sunday-school Society " was formed May 5th ; Dr. Flint was chosen president, Seth Terry, Esq., clerk, and nine directors were also chosen. Four schools were organized, and of the fourth, which assembled in the South Church Chapel, Elijah Knox was superintendent.
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During the summer of 1818 about five hundred scholars were gathered in these four schools. The Society managed the schools until 1820, when it was deemed best that each parish should manage its own school, and the Society ceased its operations. In 1820 Michael Seymour and Elijah Knox were chosen Deacons, and about that time another great and extensive revival occurred, by which the churches were largely increased in numbers. One feature of the revival services in Hartford was the powerful preaching of Rev. Lyman Beecher of Litchfield.
In 1820 the First Methodist Episcopal Church in this city was organized, and a house of worship was erected on Trumbull street.
The records of the Society furnish a few items of inter- est. In 1802 Henry Seymour, son of the venerable Deacon Thomas Seymour, and father of Colonel Thomas H. Sey- mour, was elected clerk. In 1814 James Babcock was chosen clerk, and Henry Seymour soon became treasurer of the Society. In 1815 the committee were authorized to take down the spire of the meeting-house, and the question of removing the house itself was discussed. It was evidently going to decay, and was also an obstruction in the highway. Two years later the question of a new meeting-house was debated, but the time for re-building had not come. The old house was whitewashed and painted, but no considerable repairs or alterations of it were made. It must have pre- sented an aspect of extreme dilapidation. In 1818 much feeling was manifested and many votes were passed with respect to the use of the meeting-house for town meetings. Elections had formerly been held in it, and for many years it had been the place for the annual freemen's meeting. It was voted not to permit the town to hold its meetings in the House of Worship. This vote was rescinded, passed again, and once more rescinded. Just how the question was finally settled does not appear.
A notification like the following was probably issued each year :
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" The Freemen of the Town of Hartford are hereby notified to attend Freemen's Meeting, at the South Meeting-House, on Monday next, at 9 o'clock, A. M.
" AZOR HATCH, Constable. " April 6, 1814."
The meeting-house of the First Church, dedicated in 1739, had also become decayed, and in 1804 steps were taken for the erection of a new House of Worship, which was com- pleted and occupied in 1807. While this new sanctuary was in process of erection the religious services on election day were held in the South Church, which explains sundry old bills of the committee of the Second Ecclesiastical Society against the State of Connecticut, for preparing and "cleansing the sanctuary." E. A. Kendall was here on elec- tion day in 1807, and his description of its scenes and ser- vices is very graphic. The following sentences are quoted as setting forth with some particularity the aspect and condition of the South Meeting-House at that time : -
" At about eleven o'clock, his Excellency entered the State House, and shortly after took his place at the head of the procession, which was made to a meeting-house or church, something less than half a mile dis- tant. The procession was on foot, and was composed of the person of the governor, together with the lieutenant-governor, assistants, high sheriffs, members of the lower house of the assembly, and, unless with accidental exceptions, all the clergy of the State. It was preceded by the foot-guards, and followed by the horse. The church, which from its situation is called South Meeting House, is a small one, and was resorted to on this occasion, only because that more ordinarily used was at the time rebuilding. The edifice is of wood, alike unornamented within and without, and when filled, there was still presented to the eye nothing but what had the plainest appearance. The military remained in the street, with the exception of a few officers to whom no place of honor or distinction was assigned; neither the governor nor other magistrates were accompanied with any insignia of office. The clergy had no canonical costume, and there were no females in the church except a few who were stationed by themselves in a gallery opposite the pulpit, in quality of singers. The pulpit, or, as it is here called, the desk, was filled by three, if not four clergy- men, a number which, by its form and dimensions it was able to accom-
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modate.' Of these one opened the service with a prayer, another delivered a sermon, a third delivered a closing prayer, and a fourth pronounced a benediction. Several hymns were sung, and among others an occasional one. (This hymn is printed in Kendall's ac- count.) The total number of singers was between forty and fifty."
There were about one hundred ministers in the pro- cession. On the evening following, the annual ball, called the election ball, occurred, and on the Monday following, a second, " more select."
In the year 1816, Dr. Strong died, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, having been pastor of the First Church for forty- two years. He was in all respects a remarkable man, and his ministry had made a deep and abiding impression, both of himself and of the Gospel upon the community.1 For nearly a quarter of a century he and Dr. Flint had labored side by side harmoniously, each doing his proper work. Dr. Strong was buried in the North Burying Ground, where a monu- ment was erected to his memory. Many of his jokes have been handed down, some of which, like that in which he joined Drs. Perkins and Flint with himself in the distillery business, are coarse enough to have been forgotten. But as a specimen of his brighter wit the story told by Dr. Walker in his History (page 361) may be transcribed here :
Having on one occasion a callow young minister to preach for him, he noticed, a little before the hour for after- noon service, that many of his dissatisfied congregation were passing by his house, on the way to the South Church. Whereupon he said to the unsuspecting young brother, "I do wish Brother Flint's congregation could hear that sermon you preached for my people to-day ; and, late as it is, I think it can be done." A messenger was immediately sent to Dr. Flint and brought a cordial invitation for a repetition of the morning discourse to the South congregation. The sequel can easily enough be imagined.
In 1817, Mr. Joel Hawes appeared in the pulpit of the First Church for the first time and preached. After a consid-
1 Walker's Hist., Chap. 13.
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erably long probation he was called to the pastorate left va- cant by Dr. Strong's death, and was ordained on the 4th of March, 1818. He labored in the ministry here with singular simplicity, sincerity, and success, for forty-six years, and for forty-nine years was officially in the pastorate of the First Church. He soon occupied a commanding position in the community, and eventually exercised an influence second to that of no other pastor in Connecticut.
Although Dr. Hawes was in the Center Church and actively at work there when the present writer came to Hartford, and although it was granted that the young man should call the patriarch his friend, and find in him both friend and father, yet there is no need to speak further concerning him here. Dr. Walker's report of him, and par- ticularly Dr. Edward A. Lawrence's biography of him may easily be consulted.
A great excitement prevailed throughout the Second Parish in the year 1822, caused by an attempt to introduce avowed Universalist preaching into the pulpit. It was then believed that the ultimate object of the prime movers in this discreditable scheme was to get control of the funds of the Society, and to put the entire church establishment into the hands of the Universalists. However this may be, had their aims been realized, the Church and Society would inevitably have been moved from its ancient foundations, if not utterly ruined. Some of the committee of the Society were foremost in the effort. The following correspondence will explain the movement :
" HARTFORD, 27th May, 1822.
"' REV. DOCT. FLINT:
" SIR, - As Committee of the Second Ecclesiastical Society, we would respectfully represent that a large proportion of the members of said Society, believing in the universality of the atonement and of the final restitution of all men, have expressed their desire that a cler- gyman agreeing with them in sentiment should be permitted to preach in the meeting-house of the Society one-half of the Sabbaths previ- ous to our next annual meeting. The equity of this proposition may be considered conclusive, from the consideration, that as they are members
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of the same Society, and subject to the like burthens with their other Christian brethren, so also are they entitled to equal privileges, and of course have an equal claim with those who differ from them in sentiment, to hear the Gospel preached according to their understanding of the Scriptures.
" We are, Reverend Sir, " Yours &c., " ELISHA SHEPARD, - Committee."
" Signed,
SYLVESTER WELLS,
This astonishing request came just after the great and powerful revival of 1821, when over sixty persons were ad- mitted to the Church. But the Church had nothing to do with the movement. The Universalist element was in the Society only, and was not particularly characterized by piety in the persons who constituted it. The doctrines of Uni- versalism had been abroad in the air of New England for some time. In 1821, the Rev. Richard Carrique gathered in the State House the first Universalist congregation in Hart- ford. Three years after he left his people, occupying a building in Central Row, on the site of Central Hall.
To the following letter Dr. Flint replied, two days later, as follows :
" To the Committee of the Second Ecclesiastical Society of Hartford :
" GENTLEMEN, - Your letter of the 27th was duly received, and after mature reflection and consideration, I submit to you the following reply.
"According to the usages of our country from its first settlement to the present time, and, as far as my information extends, of all other Christian countries, it is considered as the right, the privilege, the duty of a minister, regularly ordained and installed in a Church and Society, to have control of the pulpit belonging to the Parish, on the Sabbath, and at such other times as he may have occasion to occupy it. In exercising this right, however, and in discharging this duty, he is bound by certain restrictions, a principal one of which is that he do not encourage what he considers as fundamental errors to be taught to the people of whom he has the charge ; and that he do not admit, voluntarily, into the pulpit, preachers who inculcate a system of religion materially different from that one on which the church and society were founded. I do not, therefore, Gentlemen, consider myself authorized to comply with your proposal, and
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were I to comply, I should betray the trust committed to me when I took charge of the Second Church and Society of Hartford.
" The Society was incorporated, I believe, in the year 1669, and at that time and ever since, the Society and the Pastor, for the time being, have been considered believers in the general system of doctrines adopted by the Consociated Churches of Connecticut. This system of doctrine is fundamentally different from that which, in your letter, you propose that I should consent to have taught for one-half the Sabbaths, in the pulpit committed to my charge thirty-one years ago the last month.
" You will therefore perceive, Gentlemen, that by complying with your proposal, I should be guilty of a gross violation of my ordination vows. I should give my sanction to what I believe, to what the Church believes, and to what a respectable portion of the parish believes to be a dangerous error, and I should drive several hundred people from the house where they have been accustomed to meet to worship God on the Sabbath, where, according to the laws of the country, they have a right to meet, and from which they cannot be debarred, except by a exertion of arbitrary power.
" Permit me therefore to observe to you, that I and those who act with me in this business, claim no right to dictate to others what religious sentiments they shall embrace, and we trust that we are really as much opposed to religious persecution as those who say so much concerning love and good-will to men.
" All that we claim and all that we ask, is to be left to the unmo- lested enjoyment of our own opinions, and to the occupancy of a house of worship that was built by our fathers for persons of our general system of sentiments, our right to which we conceive we have not forfeited. If any members who have been members of the Society have materially altered their sentiments, we are certainly willing that they should enjoy their own opinions; but we believe they have no right, however numerous they may be, to what, upon every just and honest principle, belongs to people of a different persuasion.
" I hope, Gentlemen, you will maturely consider what I have written, and if it should not produce conviction in your minds that I am correct, I shall at least have discharged my duty, and I must leave the event to the wise disposal of that Providence which controls all things.
" Yours with due consideration, " ABEL FLINT,
" Pastor of the Sec. Church and Soc., Hartford, May 29, 1822."
This letter, so admirable in its spirit, and so felicitous in its firmness, did not convince the Committee, who then set
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about to carry their point by strategy. It should be stated here that Dr. Flint, at this time, was in delicate and declining health.
He had sustained severe bodily injuries by being violently thrown from a wagon, and was unable to preach much, or to go abroad in the discharge of his duties. Taking advantage of this fact, the Committee arranged to put Rev. Mr. Carrique, a Universalist minister, into the pulpit on a Sunday evening. The project became known, and the sanctuary was filled at an early hour, and a scandalous scene occurred. The choir (in which were several persons with whom the writer has conversed about the matter) did what they could to hinder the outrage. They sang on, tuning up with ever new ardor, as if they would "occupy the whole time," until they were finally silenced by authority. The following account of what then and there happened was written down the same evening by an eye-witness of the proceedings, and whose name is a sufficient guarantee of the trustworthiness of his statement :
" Rev. Mr. Carrique, a Universalist preacher, came into the house before the bell rung, accompanied by Dr. Wells and Elisha Shepard, and Mr. C. went into the pulpit. The house was well filled. There had been a meeting appointed by Dr. Flint ; the Rev. Mr. Smith had been invited to preach by Dr. Flint, who was absent ; the choir had been sing- ing for some time. Soon after the bell commenced ringing Mr. Smith came in and went up into the pulpit. Dr. Wells followed him up. After some whispering between Dr. Wells and Mr. Smith, he got up and stated to the people that he had come there to preach, that he was a stranger and did not understand the difficulties in the Society, but had been requested by Dr. Flint to preach for him in that place, and he should preach unless he was forbidden. He told the Committee (Dr. Wells and Mr. Shepard) that he could preach in the chapel or out of doors, if he could not preach there. Dr. Wells then arose in the pulpit and said that the Society ought to know that the time for which the agree- ment was made with Dr. Flint, that he might use the house Sabbath evening, ended in March ; that Dr. Flint had been informed on Saturday afternoon that a large number of the Society were desirous to hear Mr. Carrique preach, and that Dr. Flint had notified his people to meet here when he knew that Mr. Carrique was to preach ! Rev. Mr. Smith
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then said, 'Do you forbid my preaching ?' 'No,' said Dr. Wells, ' I did not say so.' Mr. Smith replied, ' then I will preach if I am not for- bidden ' Ile then took hold of the Bible. Dr. Wells then said, 'We expect Mr. Carrique to preach.' Mr. Smith then said, 'I will go to the chapel and preach there, as I cannot preach here.' There was now great commotion in the house, many voices calling on Mr. Smith to preach. Mr. Smith said, ' If I am forbidden to preach by the Committee, I wish them to say so.' Mr. Shepard said, ' I wish you would not preach, I wish you would go away.'
The noise and confusion were very much increased, and Mr. Smith soon left the house, the people following him. Dr. Wells then called for Squire Niles, and he came into a pew near the pulpit. Dr. Wells requested Mr. Carrique to begin the service. He began by reading a Psalm, and then there was so much noise made by the people going out, that he was obliged to stop. Dr. Wells then, in a loud voice, said that religious services had commenced, and any person who made a disturbance would be prosecuted according to law ; Squire Niles had the Statute Book, and, if necessary, would read the Riot act. Three-fourths of the people then went to the chapel, headed by the good old Deacons Hempsted and Tileston.
" Thus ended the attempt of the Universalists and infidels to obtain possession of the good old South Church and its fund. After this the people came out in their strength, and their enemies were scattered.
" I was present, and wrote the preceding account at the time. " Signed B. HUDSON, JR."
Two other letters bearing on this affair were preserved, but are not sufficiently important to quote here. I have given true and literal copies of the foregoing documents. When Mr. Hudson's account was first published by me, in 1870, it was fully corroborated by several persons who were witnesses of the notorious proceedings.
At a meeting of the Society held in the Meeting House, Sept. 22, 1822, the following resolution was submitted to the meeting by Dr. Sylvester Wells : -
" WHEREAS the Inhabitants of this Society are divided in their religious opinions, not only as to matters of faith, but also as to what descrip- tion of preaching has the most salutary and beneficial influence upon the community, whereby a portion of them have long been deprived of equal civil and religious privileges and advantages as members of said Society, wherefore,
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" Voted, that the Committee of said Society be and they are hereby empowered and directed to open the Meeting House of said Society to such minister or ministers of the Gospel, sustaining a fair moral char- acter, to preach therein, as they may think expedient, a portion of the time, not exceeding one-half of the Sabbaths from this period to the next annual meeting of the Society, provided that the preaching which may be authorized or permitted by virtue of this vote shall not subject the Society to any expense or charge whatever, &c., &c."
The Society Record of that meeting contains this clos- ing sentence :
" After a short discussion on the above vote, the question was taken, and decided in the negative by a large majority."
In a letter written by Mrs. Ruth Patten (widow of the former pastor, and then eighty-four years of age) under date May 30, 1823, the sequel of this affair is indicated.
" Dr. Flint has of late been quite an invalid, goes out but little, appears dejected and unhappy. About sixty of his parishioners have signed off to join the Universalists, who are building a splendid church south of the State House. Many other buildings are going up ; much animation expressed on every subject but religion."
In November, 1823, Dr. Flint sent his resignation to the Church and Society, and insisted upon immediate action for the dissolution of his pastoral relation. After several meet- ings, in which the proposition to settle a colleague with him was discussed, it was at length decided, on his earnest request, to grant him a complete dismission.
The numerous letters and communications that were interchanged between him and his people on this occasion show that a deep and cordial respect and affection were mutually felt by them. In one of his communications Dr. Flint stated that "all the present members of the Church, with one exception (the venerable Thomas Seymour, Esq.), have been admitted during my ministry, which has con- tinued nearly thirty-three years."
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