USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > History of the Second church of Christ in Hartford > Part 16
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An ecclesiastical council was convened, Jan. 13, 1824, "for the purpose of dissolving, if found expedient, the pas-
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Revs. Benjamin Boardman and Abel Flint
toral relation of the Rev. Abel Flint, D.D." The result of this council was that the said pastoral relation "be, and hereby is dissolved." In this result Dr. Flint was com- mended with great cordiality and sympathy, as a good and faithful and able servant of the Master. The Church sent him tender letters of sympathy and affection. On the 7th of March, 1825, Mr. Flint died, in the household of Col. Elijah Terry, in a wooden house next north of St. Peter's Church, and his funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Thomas Robbins of East Windsor. He was buried in the South Burying Ground, on Maple Avenue, where his monument still stands.
That his ministry here was a laborious and fruitful one cannot be doubted. He was active and earnest in all good works. He was a promoter of whatever seemed to be conducive to the public welfare. It is said that the Institute Library may be traced back to his zeal in providing good reading for the people of the parish. He was a Christian gentleman of unusual culture. Dr. Leonard Bacon, in his address at the two hundredth anniversary of this Church, 1870, described "the majesty of Dr. Flint" in his prime, most felicitously : -
" The first time I spoke to the majesty of Dr. Flint, was when I went to his house to be examined for admission to the Grammar School. He was one of the Trustees, and he often came to see how the school was going on, and to examine us in our Latin or Greek. The boys liked to see him come,-we liked his beaming face and his sonorous voice, for there was evident kindness under his impressive dignity."
" He was a man whom nobody could meet on the pavement without taking particular notice of him. To see him marching up Main Street, with his ivory-headed cane, in his clerical dress, which was antique even then, would gladden the eyes of a modern Ritualist. I remember the black coat of a somewhat Quakerish cut, the black japanesed buttons, the knee-buckles and shoe-buckles, the blue coat, too, that enveloped his stately form in colder weather, and the broad-brim hat on the short, snow-white hair, which, by contrast, made his smoothly-shaven face seem more florid. He was a man of more culture than genius, with a polished style of writing, with a graceful and impressive oratory, and with a per- fect observance of all pulpit proprieties."
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The first quarter of the nineteenth century was a period in which Connecticut experienced great distress and trial by the burdensome war of 1812, and was greatly agitated by po- litical contentions involving the downfall of Federalism and the adoption of a new Constitution which established com- plete religious liberty. But it was a period, also, of enlarged Christian activites, of awakening literary life, of social devel- opment, and of commercial expansion. The Great River was bridged. Insurance and transportation companies were or- ganized. The Institution for the care and instruction of the Deaf and Dumb was planted, the Female Beneficent Society was organized, and children were gathered into Sunday- schools. The temperance reformation began in the churches, or with the ministers, and Rev. Lyman Beecher brought his great powers to bear for its successful prosecution. Fairfield Consociation, in 1812, banished intoxicating liquors from its meetings, and this first example of the sort was soon com- mended and adopted in other similar bodies. Out of consid- eration for brethren scattered in the borders of the wilder- ness sprang the Connecticut Missionary Society, and as those borders were pushed westward by the tide of emigration from the eastern coast-strip, the missionaries followed. Bible societies were formed. The American Board of Commission-
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ers for Foreign Missions was organized at Farmington, in 1810, and local auxiliary societies sprang up throughout the State. The consciousness of wider, yea, of world relations, was quickened in the people. They began to realize the fact of their nationality, and the boundless extent and re- sources of their country. With the feeling of independence came the consciousness of power and responsibility.
The complete downfall of Federalism, in the national election of 1800 which introduced the long supremacy of Jef- fersonian principles in the government, was attended with changes which affected all forms and departments of life, and which, a few years later, completely reversed the relations of political parties in Connecticut, the very citadel of Federal- ism and conservatism. This was more than the defeat of a political party in the country and commonwealth. It was a revolution, logically developed out of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, fostered by sympathy with the French Revolution, and carried forward irresistibly along the lines of political equality, universal suffrage, and popular government. Out of that vehement struggle came that which is distinctively American in manners, cus- toms, habits of thought, freedom of speech and opinion, and in that confidence in the people which the old Federal aris- tocracy, with all its splendid virtues, lacked.
To show how this political revolution was finally accom- plished in Connecticut in 1817, by a coalition of Episco- palians, Baptists, Methodists, and other denominations with the Republicans, it is necessary to briefly state the succes- sive steps by which religious liberty had been partially attained.
From the settlement of the colony down to 1708, all the inhabitants were taxed to support the religious societies in their respective towns or plantations. The underlying theory, never abandoned, but more or less modified from time to time, was that each citizen should pay a tax, levied and collected like other taxes, for the support of religion.
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In 1708, when the Congregational Churches, consociated according to the Saybrook platform, were legally established by an act of the General Assembly, a Proviso, popularly known as the Toleration act, was appended to the act of es- tablishment, by which sober dissenters from the established order were permitted to organize and worship according to their own way and consciences. But they were not yet ex- empted from taxation for the support of the Congregational societies.
In 1727, an act was passed permitting Episcopalians to pay their taxes for the support of religion to their own socie- ties, and exempting them from taxation to support the estab- lished churches. In 1729, a similar liberty was granted to Baptists and Quakers. To enjoy the liberty of this provision one must be near enough to some organized Episcopalian or Baptist Society to be a member of it, and to attend its public worship, and strict constructions were put upon the law, so that persons living at some distance from the aforesaid socie- ties were excluded from the benefit of the law. Moreover, for people living in places where there was no other than the Congregational Church, the law gave no relief. They were taxed for the Congregational Church in their towns as before.
In 1784, by a revision of the Statutes, the legal establish- ment of the Congregational churches consociated under the Saybrook Platform was repealed, and all religious societies were alike tolerated, but "public worship was still presumed by law to be the duty of every citizen, and those who were not enrolled in other societies were treated and taxed as members of the Congregational parishes." A further relief was granted in 1791. One might lodge his written certifi- cate with the clerk of a society and obtain liberty to "sign off" from further responsibility to it. But still there re- mained several irritating facts. The theory survived and was in force that every man must be taxed somewhere for the support of religion. To get free from liability to Con- gregational churches he must take measures that were con-
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sidered by many to be annoying and humiliating. Often, where only Congregational societies existed, the rates were rigidly enforced upon unwilling and indifferent persons. Old grudges and antipathies were cherished. The time for independence had come. The control of the government and its patronage were thought to be in the hands of the " standing order." Gradually the churches other than Con- gregational were drawn in sympathy to the Jeffersonian or Republican party, and many of the Congregationalists, as well, joined the new coalition for Toleration.
An Episcopalian was elected Lieutenant-Governor in 1816, and in the ensuing year Oliver Wolcott was nominated and elected Governor by the motley, but powerful, Tolera- tion Party. A majority of the same party were in the Gen- eral Assembly. Rev. Mr. Croswell, an Episcopalian clergy- man, preached the election sermon in the Center Church, and at the dinner for the clergy, the venerable Dr. Perkins of West Hartford made a pleasant speech, in which he said, " I little thought, when I catechised the children at the South End, that Harry Croswell would become an Episcopal min- ister, and preach the Election Sermon !" Following this triumph came the Convention which abolished the charter of Charles II, and framed the new Constitution of 1818, by which complete religious liberty was established, and the support of all religious societies was made purely voluntary. Men were at liberty to associate themselves as they pleased, or to be completely independent of all religious societies if they preferred. Many good men, like Dr. Beecher, regarded this result as likely to be disastrous, and deeply lamented it, but the experience of seventy years has not justified their apprehensions.
All this time, the manners and customs and habits and dress of the people were rapidly changing. A " Jeffersonian plainness" supplanted the statelier fashions of a somewhat aristocratic federalism, or drove them into conservative and clerical corners. The town meetings in the Second Church ceased to be the decorous and solemn assemblies of old, and
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took on electioneering aspects and a democratic rudeness and irreverence which caused many to object to having houses of worship used for such purposes.
" At the period of my earliest recollections," writes S. G. Goodrich, " Men of all classes were dressed in long broad-tailed coats, with huge pockets, long waistcoats, and breeches. Hats had low crowns, with broad brims. The stockings of the parson, and a few others, were of silk in summer and worsted in winter ; those of the people were gener- ally of wool, and blue and gray mixed. Women dressed in wide bonnets -sometimes of straw and sometimes of silk; the gowns were of silk, muslin, gingham, &c .- generally close and short-waisted, the breast and shoulders being covered by a full muslin kerchief. Girls ornamented themselves with a large white Vandyke. "
And the same writer says of the old "age of polite- ness " :
"For some reason or other, it seems to have gone down with old Hartford Convention Federalism. The change in manners had no doubt been silently going on for some time ; but it was not distinctly visible to common eyes till the establishment of the new constitution. Powder and queues, cocked hats and broad-brims, white-top boots, breeches and shoe-buckles, - signs and symbols of a generation, a few examples of which still lingered among us, - finally departed with the charter of Charles II., while with the new constitution of 1818, short hair, pantaloons, and round hats with narrow brims, became the established costume of men of all classes." !
This period was the early spring-time of American liter- ature. The coterie known as the "Hartford wits" was famous in the first years of it. Trumbull's collected poems were published in 1820. Mrs. Sigourney first appeared as an author of prose and verse in 1815. S. G. Goodrich (Peter Parley) was here from 1811 onward, and did much to stimu- late an interest in literature. Literary clubs flourished.
1 A daughter of Dr. Flint, Mrs. Norton, told the following anecdote, in 1870: Dur- ing the war of 1812 some soldiers were in the South Church on a Lord's Day, and when the good Doctor announced his text, "Fear God, honor the King," one of the soldiers, more patriotic than sober, startled the congregation by rising to his feet and crying out, "Fear God, honor the President, Sir !" He was quietly subdued, but Dr. Flint's gravity was sorely tried, albeit he was not ardent in his honor of the President.
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Percival's poems were published in 1821, Drake's Culprit Fay in 1819, Bryant's Thanatopsis and the North American Review in 1817, and Cooper's Spy in 1821. Irving's New York was printed in 1809, and his Sketch Book in 1819. The Connecticut Mirror had three successive editors of unusual literary abil- ity, Theodore Dwight, Colonel Stone, and John C. Brainard. The Hartford Times was established under able editorial management. Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Halleck, Paulding, Drake, Brainard, Hillhouse, Percival, Everett, and others were arising to answer Sydney Smith's question, "Who reads an American book?" The famous law-school in Litchfield, where many distinguished men pursued their legal studies, may be mentioned. Calhoun, Clay, and Web- ster were coming to the front rank in national politics. This literary revival was powerfully stimulated by the new school of English writers, whose works were eagerly and widely read. Cowper had supplanted or supplemented Dr. Watts. Burns' poems were read with avidity, despite their dashes of nanghtiness. Campbell's Pleasures of Hope and Roger's Pleasures of Memory were everywhere popular. Byron was denounced by the godly, but his poems spread like wildfire, and a Byronic rage prevailed, not altogether wholesome. Dr. Lyman Beecher admired his genius, and thought he could have converted the erratic poet, had opportunity been afforded. Each number of the Edinburgh Review was eagerly awaited, and, notwithstanding Jeffrey's trenchant criticisms, Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and others of that school found grateful readers. Jane Porter's Thaddeus of Warsaw and Scottish Chiefs, Hannah More's mild composi- tions, and Miss Edgeworth's tales were everywhere perused. But Walter Scott's cheery, hearty, noble bugle-blasts were the great awakening notes of the time. The splendid poems with which he delighted and enkindled all hearts here were speedily followed by the bewitching romances, culminating in Ivanhoe, which enchanted multitudes of young and old. The era of splendid fiction had come. No complete history of any church in New England at that time can omit
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to notice, if it cannot fully trace and estimate, the influence of such a literary revival and culture.
The improvement in music was also considerable. The choir of the First Church, in 1818, when Dr. Hawes came hither, was regarded as one of unusual excellence, and its performances, on special occasions, were eagerly at- tended. At Christ Church, in 1816, a concert was given con- sisting of selections from the Messiah. Oratorios of a mod- erate sort were given by the Jubal Society. In 1822 the following advertisement appeared : --
SELECT ORATORIO.
The Choir under the instruction of Mr. ALVAH HATHAWAY will perform the following select pieces of Music, in the SOUTH CHURCH in this City, on Wednesday evening, the 15th inst.
PART FIRST.
I. Anthem. O praise the Lord. Handel.
2. Hymn. Jesus lover of my soul. Madan.
3. Do. Hence from my soul. Wyvil.
4. Anthem. Hark, the Herald Angels sing. Arnold.
5. Duet.
6. Anthem. Behold the blind their sight receive. Peck.
7. Do. By the rivers of Babylon. Ashworth.
8. Do. I beheld, and lo, a great multitude. Arnold.
9. Duet.
10. Hymn. Old Hundred.
PART SECOND.
I. Anthem. As Israel's people in despair. Stevens.
2. Ode. Grateful notes and numbers bring. Madan.
3. Duet.
4. Anthem. Strike the Cymbal. Pucitta.
5. Do. Shepherds rejoice and send your fears away. Leach.
6. Do. O come let us sing unto the Lord. Chapple.
7. Do. Lord of all power and might. Mason. 8. Do.
Hosanna, blessed is he that comes. Rev. C. Gregory.
Doors open at 6 o'clock .- Services to commence at half past 6 .- Tickets 25 cents- Children half price, to be had at the office of the RELIGIOUS INQUIRER, at A. HATCHI'S LOTTERY OFFICE, and of Mr. CONNOR, State-street .- Also at the door of the Church.
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In Hartford the old fuguing style and the Billings school of composition had given way to English tunes and anthems of a nobler kind. Organs were introduced in churches, musical societies of a superior sort were formed, and excellent collections of church music were published, among which was Lowell Mason's Boston Handel and Haydn Society's Collection of Church Music, in 1821. The great work of musical education accomplished by Mr. Mason dates from the year 1827, when he removed to Boston and took “gen- eral charge of music in the churches there."
From the aforementioned Recollections of a Lifetime, by S. G. Goodrich, the following description of Hartford in 1811 is taken :
" Hartford was then a small commercial town of four thousand in- habitants, dealing in lumber, and smelling of molasses and old Jamaica, for it had still some trade with the West Indies. There was a high tone of general intelligence and social respectability about the place ; but it had not a single institution, a single monument that marked it as even a provincial metropolis of taste in literature, art, or refinement. Though the semi-capital of the State, it was strongly impressed with a plodding, mercantile, and mechanical character."
And yet, when Dr. Hawes came to Hartford, in 1818, after preaching in the First Church, he wrote that he had " never preached to such a congregation before. The one in Park Street (Boston) is inferior in respect to number, charac- ter, elegance, and, I believe, in every other respect."
Thirty-five years later he said, concerning that first Sab- bath here :
" I shall never forget the impression made on my mind when I first passed up the broad aisle to enter this pulpit. I seemed to be in the midst of an assembly of Roman senators, so thickly scattered in every part of the house were the grave and reverend men to whom I have re- ferred. Their heads, hoary with age and with honor, and their upturned countenances, so intelligent, so dignified, so devout, so thoughtful, filled me with awe as I beheld them."
With such pleasant testimony this chapter may end.
CHAPTER VII
DR. JOEL HARVEY LINSLEY, REV. CORNELIUS C. VANARS- DALEN, DR. OLIVER ELLSWORTH DAGGETT, DR. WALTER CLARKE, 1824-1860
AMONG THE several ministers who had been employed to preach in the Second Church during the closing year of Dr. Flint's ministry, was Rev. Joel H. Linsley, whose ministra- tions proved so satisfactory to the congregation, that the So- ciety proceeded, without delay, to invite him to become their pastor. Dr. Flint was dismissed January 13, 1824, and at a meeting of the Society held on the 21st, it was voted to ex- tend a call to Mr. Linsley, and to offer him a salary of eight hundred dollars and the use of the parsonage and garden connected therewith. This prompt action was in accordance with Dr. Flint's wishes and recommendation, and he was present at the Society's meeting, and received thanks for his services.
On the 26th of January, the Church held a meeting and voted unanimously to extend a call to Mr. Linsley, whose 'labors they had, for some time past, enjoyed.1 To these invi- tations Mr. Linsley replied in brief letters of acceptance, and the Committees of the Church and Society made arrange- ments for his ordination. An Ecclesiastical Council was called for that purpose, which convened at the house of Dr. Flint, on the 24th of February, 1824. The First Church in
1 Among papers recently discovered, was one of which the following is a copy. It bears no date, and whether it was ever adopted by the Society is uncertain: "T'oted, That should Mr. Joel H. Linsley accept the call of this Society as this day made, to settle with them, it is understood as a part of the contract proposed, that whenever two-thirds of the legal voters of said Society, at any legal meeting, shall resolve that it would be best for the interests of said Society to dissolve said con- tract, that their relation as pastor and people shall cease."
The paper seems to be in the handwriting of Henry Seymour.
( 196)
JOEL HARVEY LINSLEY
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Linsley-l'anarsdalen-Daggett-Clark
Hartford, and the Churches in West Hartford, Windsor, Rocky Hill, Wethersfield, Newington, Glastonbury, and East Windsor were represented by their pastors and messengers. Dr. Flint was chosen Moderator, and the business of the Council was then transacted.
After a full examination of documents and candidate, it was voted to approve and ordain Mr. Linsley. One or two things in the record of the Council are significant. One is found in the following clause: " After a full examination of Mr. Linsley as to his motives in desiring the office of a Bishop."
Another is found in the fact that Mr. Linsley gave his " qualified assent to the Heads of Agreement adopted for the regulation and government of the churches in this State."
The ordination services were held at eleven o'clock A.M. on the 25th of February, 1824, Prof. Fitch of New Haven preaching the sermon, and Rev. Joel Hawes giving the right hand of fellowship.
Rev. Joel Harvey Linsley, D.D., was born in Cornwall, \'t., July 15, 1790. His father was Hon. Joel Linsley, who went from Woodbury, Conn., to Cornwall in 1775, was Town Clerk from the organization of the town until his death, rep- resented the town for several years in the State legislature, and was Chief Judge of the County Court. Joel Harvey was the fourth of eight children, and one of his brothers, Charles Linsley, Esq., was a lawyer in Vermont. He fitted for col- lege under Rev. Jedediah Bushnell, pastor of the Church at Cornwall, and at Addison County Grammar School, was graduated at Middlebury College in 1811, taught one year in Windsor, studied law at Vergennes with David Edmond, Esq., was two years tutor at Middlebury, completed his legal studies, was admitted to the bar in 1815, and practised the legal profession until 1821. About that time he felt con- strained to enter the ministry, and studied theology at Mid- dlebury and Andover. Having spent a year in Missionary work in South Carolina, he came to Hartford, and was pastor here for eight years, when he was dismissed, and became pas- tor of the Park Street Church in Boston in 1832. In 1835,
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he was chosen president of Marietta College, Ohio. In 1846, he became pastor of the Congregational Church at Green- wich, Conn., and continued there until his death, which occurred on Sabbath morning, March 22, 1868.
One of the earliest minutes in the Church records of 1824, is that concerning a letter from the " North Church and Society " in Hartford, requesting that the Pastor and a dele- gate of this Church " be present to assist in the ordination of Mr. Carlos Wilcox1 over said Church and Society." The North Church (now Park Church) had been organized in September, chiefly of members of the First Church, and their first minister was ordained November 30, 1824. Mrs. Ruth Patten, writing from Hartford about this time, said :
" The new Congregation (North Church) appears like a new married couple. Their house is perfectly neat, aisles carpeted, no gallery except a small one above the pulpit for singers, and just such a minister as they want."
She also said:
" I think at the South (Church) they have a proper man for them. Having gained considerable knowledge of human nature connected with strength of nerves, he appears peculiarly calculated for their minister."
This remark of the venerable widow of a former pastor of the Second Church may seem somewhat tinged with per- sonal prejudice, but it unquestionably reflects the real state of things in the South Parish at that time. The trouble with the Universalists, in 1822, had somewhat shadowed it, and for various reasons it was in general disfavor. There were noble men and women in the Church, but they were com- paratively few. There were discordant elements in the Society, and petty jealousies and rivalries of a rustic and
1 Mr. Wilcox, who had preached some time for Dr. Flint, remained in the North Church less than two years, and died in 1827. He was of frail health, but of singu- larly engaging qualities, and an eloquent preacher. A volume of his sermons, with some poems, was published here in 1828. A sketch of his life is given in Sprague's Annals, second volume.
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