USA > Connecticut > The history of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, from the settlement of the colony to the death of Bishop Seabury > Part 19
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sire is, that they will not oppose us, and we will prom- ise never to molest them."
Dr. Johnson, in a letter to the Archbishop of Can- terbury, written in the same month, said: "I have the great mortification and grief to inform your Grace, that those two hopeful young gentlemen who were ordained last1 had the misfortune to be lost on their arrival on the coast, the ship being dashed to pieces, and only four lives saved out of twenty-eight. These two make up ten valuable lives that have now been lost, for want of ordaining powers here, out of fifty- one, (nigh one in five,) that have gone for Orders from hence, within the compass of my knowledge, in little more than forty years, which is a much greater loss to the Church here, in proportion, than she suf- fered in the time of Popish persecution in England. I say this because I can consider the Church here, for want of Bishops, in no other light than as being really in a state of persecution on this account. Pray, my Lord, will our dear mother-country have no bowels of compassion for her poor depressed, destitute chil- dren of the established Church, (probably a million of them,) dispersed into these remote regions? How long, O Lord, holy and true! . . . . . If such a thing as sending one or two Bishops can at all be done for us, this article of time, now that all America are overflow- ing with joy for the repeal of the Stamp-Act, would be the happiest juncture for it that could be, for I believe they would rather twenty Bishops were sent than that Act enforced."
It was in this letter that the writer referred to a Synod of sixty Presbyterians assembled at New York,
1 Mr. Giles of New York, and Mr. Wilson of Philadelphia.
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with the design of applying, through the General As- sembly of Scotland, to the Parliament of Great Britain for a charter; and the rejection of their application, which they charged to "prelatical influence," was said to have stung them with disappointment, and to have caused their future assaults upon the Church to be more acrimonious. The Synod made an overture to the General Associations of the ministers in the Col- ony of Connecticut to unite with them, and the first convention of Delegates to form a plan of union was held at Elizabethtown, November 5th, 1766.
A letter, prepared and approved at this meeting, vas addressed to the "Brethren of the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island governments, and he Dutch churches," showing how greatly the Dele- rates "desired that the union should extend through Il the colonies," and inviting them to join in pro- hoting "the important design" of their General Con- ention.
At the annual Commencement of the College in New Haven, the next year, there was a Convention f the Episcopal clergy; and Dr. Johnson, in mention- ig it to his Grace, said: "There was also here an- ther meeting of Delegates from the Presbyterians outhward and the Congregationalists this way, in irther pursuance of their grand design of coalescing r union, but what they have done we know not. It said there was much disputing, and therefore we ispected they did not all agree." These meetings ere continued annually for a period of nine years, ntil the distracted situation of public affairs inter- ipted them; and it has since come to light that the cominent object of them was to concert measures for
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preventing the introduction of Bishops into this coun- try, and for "guarding the liberties of the churches against all encroachments."
The new form in which the effort to secure the Episcopate was pushed at this season was by an "Ap- peal to the Public," written by Dr. Chandler, and pub- lished at New York in 1767, with a courteous dedi- cation to the Primate of all England, the saintly Secker.
Previous to its appearance, however, the Bishop of Landaff (Dr. Ewer), in his anniversary sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, deliv- ered in the beginning of the year, had referred to the state of religion in some of the colonies as not much above infidelity and heathenism, and there were those who, without sufficient reason, imagined his referenc to be particularly to New England. Among thie number was Dr. Charles Chauncey of Boston, a Confr gregational divine of considerable celebrity, who pukthe lished an ingenious "Letter to a Friend," containin remarks on certain passages in the sermon, and rerm resenting the injurious consequences of sending Bist An ops to this country, besides stating the sole design ofen the Society to be "to Episcopize the colonies." His stirred up the old fears about religious persecution and, for effect in England, said: "It may be relied o1 le .5 our people would not be easy, if restrained in th exercise of that liberty wherewith Christ hath mac er ein 16. them free; yea, they would hazard everything det to them, their estates, their very lives, rather tha suffer their necks to be put under that yoke of bon g on age, which was so sadly galling to their fathers, ar occasioned their retreat into this distant land, th In
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they might enjoy the freedom of men and Chris- tians."
He was followed, a little later, by another cham- pion on the same side, Mr. William Livingston, a law- yer of New York, who adopted his arguments and embellished them with the flowers of rhetoric, but ec nt added no strength or interest to the controversy, ex- cept that he drew forth "A Vindication of the Bishop of Landaff's Sermon," in a pamphlet of eighty-two Ppages, published anonymously, and characterized by horough research, a full knowledge of the subject in ll its parts, manly argument, playful sallies of wit, nd sharp and pungent criticism.
The "Appeal to the Public," by Dr. Chandler, was ot undertaken on the sole judgment of the author. t "was requested by many of his brethren," and par- icularly imposed upon him by his venerable friend at tratford, who for more than forty years had been o pure distinguished advocate of the Church of England ainin the colonies, and who, therefore, seemed to be the d remost proper person still to plead the cause of an Bist merican Episcopate. But a tremor in the hand sign tendered it extremely difficult for Dr. Johnson to use " His pen, and so he applied to one whose learning, ac- ecutionomplishments, and ability he well knew, and whom lied ore freely counselled in the whole plan and prosecu- in thon of the work.1 The clergy of New York and New h madersey, with a few from the neighboring provinces, ng demping assembled in a voluntary Convention, favored er than1 " We are greatly obliged to my Lord of Landaff for so strenuously plead- of bondy our cause in his anniversary sermon. As I doubted whether anything hers, an fuld be done at home on that subject, I urged and assisted Dr. Chandler publish an appeal to the public in its behalf, which I think he has well and, thane." - MS. Letter of Johnson to Secker, September 25, 1767.
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the suggestion of the Connecticut divine; for, after a thorough discussion of the propriety and expediency of making the appeal, "they were unanimously of opin- ion, that, fairly to explain the plan on which American Bishops had been requested, to lay before the public the reasons of this request, to answer the objections that had been made, and to obviate those that might be otherwise conceived against it, was not only proper and expedient, but a matter of necessity and duty."
After the controversies and publications of former years, it was hardly to be expected that any attrac- tive novelty would be thrown around the subject. The most which the author could hope to accomplish was to satisfy the American public that the appre- hensions of evil to grow out of the establishment of an Episcopate were groundless; that it was no part of the plan to interfere with the rights and privileges of other religious bodies, much less to encroach upor the powers of the State; and that it was but simple justice to churchmen to allow that want to be sup plied, which, as the Bishop of Landaff well said, "hath been all along the more heavily lamented, because it is a case so singular that it cannot be paralleled ir the Christian world."
The publication circulated but slowly, and found it: way with difficulty into the southern provinces. The author, in speaking of this in a letter to Dr. Johnsor said: "But I have had most amazing success with one sent to the northward, which has occasioned an offe' from Sir William Johnson of an estate, that in a fey years will of itself be a sufficient support for a Bishop 1 The gulf, His letter to me on the occasion I have transcribed and herewith send you a copy. He has offered 20,00 of
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acres of excellent land, well situated, towards the sup- port of an American Episcopate, and written in a most pressing manner to the Lords of Trade and Plan- tations in its behalf."
The Appeal, which seems to have been regarded by candid men among all denominations as a moderate and reasonable thing, had been issued from the press toper scarcely six months before it was furiously and si- multaneously attacked from various quarters. The rme trac- Nject plish ppre- " American Whig" appeared in the New York Gazette, in a series of unmanly and virulent essays,1 while a twin-brother of his started up in a Philadelphia jour- nal, under the name of the "Sentinel"; and the alarm thus sounded reached to Boston, and was instantly ent of echoed from the presses of these three principal cities, paraas if they had entered into a combination to crush out legesevery atom of popular sympathy with the plan pro- upor posed in the pamphlet of Dr. Chandler.
simple It is not in poor human nature to receive such at- he sur tacks with indifference. Gross personalities and rail- ."hatling accusations are seldom met in the spirit which use ibetrays no infirmity, and hence those on the other eled inside, in answering their adversaries, often dipped their pens in the same bitterness, and wrote with unsparing hund it severity. The newspaper productions of that day were Thtoo much steeped in rancorous feelings, and some of Johnsor them descended to that low wit and scurrility which with on hever fail to weaken or defeat the very best cause. an offe It is due, however, to the author of the Appeal to
1 " The first Whig was written by Livingston ; the second, by Smith; he third, by -; and the fourth, by Smith, as far as to the thunder ulf, and then Livingston went on in his high prancing style." - MS. Letter d 20,00 f Chandler to Johnson.
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state, that, in all his writings on the subject, he main- tained his dignity, and showed himself alike the Chris- tian and the scholar. He directed his principal atten- tion to one huge pamphlet of more than two hundred pages, entitled "The Appeal to the Public Answered," written by Dr. Charles Chauncey, the same divine be- fore mentioned, and a tried combatant in the field of religious controversy, having measured lances twenty years before with Jonathan Edwards, in oppo- sition to many of the Calvinistic doctrines and views of theology. Though he wrote with ability, Dr. Chaun- cey contributed no new arguments to his side of the question, but made some statements which betrayed his ignorance of the Church, and his unfairness as an advocate of the broad principles of Christian liberty In his concluding section there is this strange asser- tion, all the appeals and remonstrances and petitions of the Missionaries for nearly half a century to the contrary notwithstanding: "We are as fully per- suaded, as if they had openly said it, that they havete in view nothing short of a COMPLETE CHURCH HIERARCHY B after the pattern of that at home, with like officers in all their various degrees of dignity, with a like largeu revenue for their grand support, and with the allow-le ance of no other privilege to dissenters but that of ae bare toleration."
Dr. Chandler, in reply to this production, publishedles "The Appeal Defended," which breathed a truly Chris 1 tian, becoming, and charitable spirit, and with thepur former pamphlet was reprinted in England, where it seemed to be necessary to plead the cause as well a
th ppe in the colonies. A second production from the perd of his antagonist followed; and writing playfully to
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friend in reference to it, he said: "The thanks of his brethren in smoking convocation for this last exploit vere formally voted him,1 and the vote circulated hrough the country in all the newspapers. This last ircumstance, more than its real qualities, has made it necessary, in the opinion of my friends, that I should vrite again." And so he published, in 1771, his third amphlet, entitled "The Appeal Further Defended," which closed the controversy, and the general strug- le for an American Episcopate was ended.
In this same year the Rev. Dr. Cooper, President of leKing's College, New York, went to England, bearing ith him several addresses from the clergy and their onventions; and Dr. Chandler, writing to his vener- ty ble friend and adviser at Stratford, concerning the ser- bject of his visit, remarked: "He goes partly as a ions Missionary from us, in order to convert the guardians the the Church from the error of their ways. I think per ir sending Missionaries among them almost as ne- haveessary as their sending Missionaries to America. Roz ut I fear the difficulty of proselyting such a nation rs in ill be found greater than that of converting the large merican savages. Notwithstanding, I never yet have illowespaired; and considering the reasonableness of our tof aquest, and that all the motives of equity, honor, id sound policy conspire to favor it, I never can lishedespair."
Christ A General Association of the Pastors of the consociated churches in th thennecticut met at Coventry, June 21st, 1768, and voted their thanks here i o the Rev. Dr. Chauncey of Boston, for the good service he had done the cause of religion, liberty, and truth, in his judicious answer to the well a peal for an American Episcopate, and in his defence of the New-Eng- he perd churches and colonies against the unjust reflections cast upon them lly to the Bishop of Landaff's sermon before the Society for the Propagation he Gospel."
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Before leaving this subject, it, will be proper to go back a little and gather up some things which have been left behind. It must not be supposed that the whole controversy was confined to clergymen, or that all the impediments to success were presented by di- vines of the Puritan order. While the discussion was pending, and at its height, the General Court, or Legis- lature, of Massachusetts, in a printed instruction to their agent at London, among other things, directed him to use his utmost interest with the ministry that no Bishops be ever sent into America. The Legisla ture of Virginia, which was composed chiefly of church men, was equally decided in opposition, though on different grounds, and in a different way. There it took the form of a vote of thanks to certain clergy- p men for resisting, in a thin Convention, the formal of sanction of the movement to secure an American Episcopate,-a movement which was judged to be in- pla expedient at that time for various reasons, and espe of cially because nothing should be done "to weakencol the connection between the mother-country and hertha colonies," or "to infuse jealousies and fears into themu minds of Protestant dissenters," but everything "toprol preserve peace, heal divisions, and calm the angrybthe passions of an inflamed people." prere
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CHAPTER XX.
VILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON A SPECIAL AGENT TO ENGLAND FROM THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT; DEATH OF ARCH- BISHOP SECKER; AND CLOSE OF THE PUBLIC CONTROVERSY CONCERNING AN AMERICAN EPISCOPATE.
A. D. 1766-1771.
THE day before Christmas, 1766, William Samuel - ohnson, the only surviving son of Dr. Johnson, de- arted for England as a special agent from the Colony af Connecticut, in a cause of great importance, depend- ang before the Lords in Council. One Mason had com- in lained, in behalf of some Indians, relative to the title f a large tract of land, and he was sent to defend the xerolony against the complaint, and to establish its herchartered rights. His sojourn in the mother-country, theauch to the displeasure and grief of his friends, was "prolonged for nearly five years, during which period ther matters, both of a public and private nature, ere committed to his care.
The extensive correspondence of his venerable father ith the highest dignitaries of the Church, and the re- pect which they uniformly entertained for his zeal nd learning and character, gave the son access to he best society and the best means of information on pics of vital interest to America. While, therefore, ne general struggle to secure the Episcopate was oing on in this country, and the Missionaries were
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pleading and writing in defence of the measure, he was in England watching the signs of favor shown to it by the Bishops and the Ministry, at the same time that he narrowly watched those Parliamentary proceedings which were beginning to shape the des- tiny and lead to the independence of the American colonies. He kept his father supplied with all the facts, encouraging and discouraging, that came within his reach, and in one of his earliest letters to hirt said: "The Appeal you mention, however well drawn up, will, I fear, have very little effect. Perhaps the more you stir about this matter at present, the worse it will be." But as the controversy proceeded, he en- tered into its spirit, and was pleased to .observe the approbation bestowed upon Dr. Chandler's effort by the most active and distinguished prelates, though still himself doubting its beneficial effects in that critical posture of national affairs. In the summer of 1769, when the war of pamphlets was almost over, he wrote to his father these prudent words: "I can- not but say I am glad your controversy about Amer- ican Bishops seems to be near its end, since I am afraid it can have no very good effects there, and it produces none at all here. It is surprising how little
De attention is paid to it. Perhaps it may in some meas ure be accounted for by considering that they are so used here to warm controversial publications upor almost every subject, that they are become a sort o Brutum fulmen, which nobody much regards; unles you will impute it rather to the universal pursuit o wealth and pleasure, in which they are all absorbed ac so that nothing else appears to be of any consequence which is perhaps the better reason." The fathe h
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ulso appears to have become despondent as to the ssue, for in the same year he said: "I will only add, for the sake of the best of Churches, that, though I m sensible nothing can be done as to providing an American Episcopate, in the present unhappy condi- ion of things, yet I do humbly hope and confide that he Venerable Society will never lose sight of that nost important object till it is accomplished; for, till hen, the Church here must be so far from flourishing hat she must dwindle and be contemptible in the yes of all other denominations."
As the agent of the Colony of Connecticut, Dr. he er the johnson1 was concerned for the peace of its people lot less than for the good of the Church; and when rt by Governor Trumbull wrote to him to know what were he intentions in England relative to American Bish- that ps, his answer was just such an one as a cautious and mer Christian statesman might be expected to give, who st over poked into the future and foresaw the gathering I can- torm.
"It is not intended, at present, to send any Bishops I amto the American colonies; had it been, I certainly and ishould have acquainted you with it. And should it w little e done at all, you may be assured it will be in such e measanner as in no degree to prejudice, nor, if possible, ley areven give the least offence to any denomination of suporProtestants. It has indeed been merely a religious, sort ofh no respect a political, scheme. As I am myself of : unlesthe Church of England, you will not doubt that I ursuit olave had the fullest opportunity to be intimately bsorbeacquainted with all the stages that have ever been
1 At the instance of Archbishop Secker, he received the Diplomatic Degree of Doctor of Law from the University of Oxford in 1766.
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taken in this affair, and you may rely upon it that it never was, nor is, the intention, or even wish, of those who have been most sanguine in the matter, that American Bishops should have any the least degree of secular power of any nature or kind what- soever, much less any manner of concern or connec- tion with Christians of any other denomination, nor even any power, properly so called, over the Laity of the Church of England. They wish them to have merely the spiritual powers which are incident to the Episcopal character as such, which, in the ideas of that Church, are those of Ordination and Confirmation, and of presiding over and governing the clergy; which can of course relate to those of that profession only who are its voluntary subjects, and can affect nobody else. More than this would be thought rather disad- vantageous than beneficial, and I assure you would be opposed by no man with more zeal than myself, even as a friend to the Church of England. Nay, I have the stron- gest grounds to assure you that more would not be accepted by those who understand and wish well to the design, were it even offered."1
On the 3d day of August, 1768, died the Primate of all England; according to Bishop Lowth, "the greatest, the best, and the most unexceptionable char- acter that our ecclesiastical annals have to boast." During the long period of his Episcopate he held an unremitting correspondence with Dr. Johnson, anc not only kept himself minutely informed of the state of the Church in this country, but wrote largely, vig orously, and earnestly in defence of her interests and her claims to favor. His letters upon that measure 1 Johnson MSS.
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which was one of the dearest wishes of his heart, and apon all subjects connected with the welfare of the Church which he was permitted to superintend and less with his influence, breathe throughout the gen- lest wisdom and the purest charity; and "the volumes which contain them," says Anderson, "are among the nost precious treasures to be found this day among the hà vụ 5 th tha , and which onl bod disa nanuscripts of Lambeth Library." Archbishop Secker kept up the noble uniformity of his character to the nd," and, like Tenison, one of his predecessors in the Primacy, evinced his regard for the scheme on which is thoughts and prayers had so long hung, by leaving o the Society, in his will, a legacy of a thousand ounds sterling, "towards the establishment of a Bishop r Bishops in the King's dominions in America." Had he Duke of Newcastle, who was then at the head of he Ministry, and who for nearly thirty years was one f the two Secretaries of State, seen, as others saw stron lot be vell to hem, the real wants and situation of the colonies which were intrusted to his keeping, he might have varded off some of the evils and disasters which after- vards befell the British Government. But as he was rimate . "the le char boast." held an on. and e state low to provide the means of temporal defence, so he ad little disposition to sanction the supply of spiritual help. "Gibson might seek for powers to define more ccurately the commission by which he and his pred- cessors in the See of London were authorized to uperintend the colonial Churches, and the terms of which, in his judgment, were wanting in the clearness ly, vigwhich was necessary to make the superintendence ef- ests andectual. Sherlock might present to the King his ear- neasure est memorial that Bishops might forthwith be sent out o the plantations, and receive for answer that it was
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referred to the Officers of State. Secker might exert towards the same end all the influence which he had so justly gained whilst he was Rector of St. James's, and afterwards while Dean of St. Paul's and Bishop of Oxford. He might renew it with increased zeal, through all the ten years in which he was Primate. But the mass of inert resistance, presented in the office of Secretary of State responsible for the col- onies, was too great to be overcome. The utmost which the repeated exertions of all these men could obtain was promise after promise that ministers would 'consider and confer about the matter,'"1_promises which were left unfulfilled until those who received them were ready to confess that new events had changed the relation of things, and rendered it inex pedient to urge the immediate accomplishment of what before was so desirable. The fear of offending the dissenters in this country, and of inclining the people to independence, had stood in the way of a measure, right in itself, and only postponed from time to time for reasons of national policy. But it may be remarked, before dismissing the point, that the in- dependence of the colonies was finally achieved, and they "were lost to England, not less through her neg lect of them in matters spiritual, than her oppressive treatment of them in matters temporal."
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