USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Collection of facts and documents relating to ecclesiastical affairs in Groton, Mass > Part 4
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'Let me now be distinctly understood. I affirm and maintain, that our State Constitution and laws are paramount to those rules, laws, and regulations of churches which are of human construction. Were it not so, the church might impose on a town or parish, against the consent of a majority thereof, a minister, not only disagreeable to its inhabitants, but totally unqualified for the duties of his office. Were it not so, a number of the church members might separate themselves from the residue of the members, and from the inhabit- ants of the town, parish, or religious society; might abstain from public worship, and the regular administration of divine ordinances for an indefinite length of time; and, because they constituted a majority before separation, might compel their brethren, whom they had left behind, to continue in the same neglect of duty. Were it not so, the thunderbolts of some American Vatican might blast and shiver the fairest and loveliest growth of our happy country ; a monk- ish hierarchy, recovering its long lost power, might not only stop all progressive improvement in religious knowledge, virtue, and piety, but, having extinguished the light -which has beamed upon the churches, it might inculcate "precisely the same doctrines" which were taught in darker ages, and the tragedies of Servetus and John Rogers might be acted over again in every village.
' Once more ; let it be distinctly understood, that this is not in- tended as an answer to any church. I am amenable to none but the church connected and associated in religious worship with the town or first parish of Groton. ' CALEB BUTLER.'
'Groton, August 9th, 1826.'
August 12th, the writer of the above letter received his ex- communication, as follows.
' At a regular adjourned meeting of the church of Christ in Gro- ton, held August 9th, 1826,-
' Voted, unanimously, that whereas our brother, Caleb Butler, has attended a separate communion of a minority of this church, expressly against the vote of the church and the remonstrance of our pastor, and has thus arrogated to a minority the immunities and rights of the church; and whereas he has refused to give satisfaction to an aggrieved brother, when he called on him with witnesses, according
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to our Lord's direction, and complained of his walk as being un- christian ; and whereas he has refused to appear before the church, when cited by our pastor, according to a vote of the church, and has thus set aside its authority and broken his covenant obligations to be in subjection to the church,-the connexion between Caleb Butler and this church ought to be, and hereby is dissolved, and he is no longer a member of the visible church of Christ.
' By order of the church of Christ in Groton, ' DANIEL CHAPLIN, Pastor.
' A true copy : Attest, DANIEL CHAPLIN, Pastor.'
All the male members who attended the communion in June, received similar excommunications either at the same time or some time after. No notice has ever been taken of the ex- communications. The members have continued to observe the ordinances, and large additions have been made to their numbers.
August 14th, a town meeting was held, at which the Rev. C. Robinson was elected minister of the town or first parish, 143 yeas, 69 nays, and a committee chosen to prepare a contract. The meeting was adjourned to August 21st, when a contract be- tween the town and the Rev. Mr Robinson, was reported, and accepted, 156 to 51. The records of the church electing Mr Robinson their pastor, were then read, and ordered to be copied into the town records.
August 22d, the Ecclesiastical Council held their adjourned meeting at Dr Chaplin's.
About noon of that day, the chairman of the selectmen received the following letter from Dr Chaplin.
' Groton, August 22, 1826.
' CALEB BUTLER ESQ. Chairman of the Selectmen of the Town of Groton.
'SIR,-I have requested the Rev. Dr Beecher to preach a lecture for me this afternoon, at 5 o'clock, in the meetinghouse. As I have done nothing to forfeit my right to the pulpit, nor the church to for- feit their right to worship in the meetinghouse, and as it is my wish and their wish still to enjoy our rights, it is my request, that the house may be opened for our occupancy, and that the bell be rung at 4, and then again at 5 o'clock this afternoon.
' Yours, &c. DANIEL, CHAPLIN, . Pastor of the Church and Minister
of the Town of Groton.'
No notice was taken of this letter ; no answer returned. Dr Beecher preached in the Academy, where Mr Todd had preached since April 1. It is said by the Council, * that the old meeting- house had been 'repeatedly requested for lectures and church meetings.' It was never requested for any church meeting, ex- cept the one held on the door steps, of which notice will be
. See the Introduction above, p. 6, note.
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taken hereafter ; and never for lectures, except as by notes of July 18th and August 22d, when the Ecclesiastical Council was in session. The first can hardly be called a request.
August 27th, the notice given below was posted at the meet- inghouse.
' PUBLIC NOTICE.
' There will be a meeting of the church at the meetinghouse on Thursday, the 31st inst. at 3 o'clock, P. M. to take into considera- tion the subject of giving the Rev. Charles Robinson an invita- tion to become their colleague pastor, or to transact any other busi- ness that may come before the church.
' DANIEL CHAPLIN, ' Pastor of the Church of Christ in the First Parish in Groton.'
August 31st, about 9 o'clock, A. M. the chairman of the se- lectmen received the letter which follows.
' Groton, August 31st, 1826.
' To CALEB BUTLER EsQ. Chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Groton.
'SIR,-I have appointed a meeting of my church to be held at the meetinghouse this afternoon, at 3 o'clock. I would thank you, Sir, to direct the house to be opened at the hour, which, I presume, you will willingly do, as you have given me distinctly to understand, at all times, that my personal attendance is not objected to, but cor- dially desired. An answer is requested.
' Yours, &c.
DANIEL CHAPLIN, ' Pastor of the Church and Minister
of the First Parish in Groton.'
Between eleven and twelve o'clock, Mr Butler returned the answer below.
' Groton, August 31st, 11 o'clock, A. M. 1826.
' REV. SIR,-I shall not think it expedient to assemble the board of selectmen to consider your note, which has this morning come to hand, till I shall have received plain and unequivocal answers to the following queries; viz.
'1. Do you expect, that we, whom you and those you call your church, have pretended to censure and excommunicate, will meet with you this day in the meetinghouse, and enjoy our rights as mem- bers, or not ?
'2. Do you intend to introduce with you a person who has ren- dered himself peculiarly obnoxious to a majority of this town, and who has heretofore assisted you as moderator of what you call your church ?
'3. Is there any business to be transacted this day by you and those you call your church, which cannot conveniently be done where you usually assemble ? If so, what is such' business, and what are the reasons or necessity of its being done at the meetinghouse ?
' 4. Was the appointment of a church meeting this day in the meetinghouse made in the true spirit of christian meekness, humil-
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ity, and sincerity, with a view to the glory of God our Creator, in obedience to the commandments of Christ our Saviour, for the advancement of the church in christian virtues, and for the peace, harmony, and welfare of the citizens of this town ? If so, how is it expected that these great objects will be thereby obtained ?
' 5. Was not the appointment mentioned in the fourth query, made with a sinister view of grovelling policy, either directly or indirectly to give a disaffected minority of this town some hoped for advantage over the majority ? If so, what is the advantage thus hoped to be obtained ?
'6. Has all the business, which has been done by you and those you call your church, for the last eight months, been transacted in a regular, legal, and christianlike manner ? If so, why cannot you proceed at the same place and in the same manner ? If not, why do you not first notify those you have pretended to censure and ex- communicate, of the invalidity of your proceedings, and of their con- sequent regular standing ?
. 7. Is it the intention of those you call your church, and other citizens who have seceded with them, to discontinue their assen- bling to worship at other places, and to return and attend public wor- ship in future, statedly and constantly, in the meetinghouse, under such preaching as the town or parish may provide, particularly that of the Rev. Charles Robinson, minister elect of said town, should he be installed ? Very respectfully yours, &c.
' CALEB BUTLER.'
' REV. DANIEL CHAPLIN, D. D.'
The meetinghouse was not opened, and, as this transaction and its consequences seem to be favorite themes with the minority in Groton and their sage advisers in ecclesiastical matters, it will not be improper to look back a moment, and view the subject in all its circumstances and connections.
All the church mectings between November 15th, 1825, and this time, and there had been many, held by Dr Chaplin and the majority of the church, had been held at his dwellinghouse. The secession of the majority of the church and the minority of the parish or town, took place January 21st, 1826. The minority of the church, considering themselves the true church, and the parish, had regularly and legally elected the Rev. Mr Robinson for their pastor and religious teacher. The Ecclesiastical Coun- cil had been twice assembled at Groton without notice to the regular church, or to the town or parish. The proceedings of the Council were not generally known ; but it was understood, that they thought the seceders had been in an error in quitting entirely the old meetinghouse, and advised a return thither under some pretext or other.
How then does the case stand ? The minister of the town and pastor of the church, the aged Dr Chaplin, having finished
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a long course of parochial labors, is become functus officio, wholly unable to discharge the duties of his office any longer. Yet he endeavours, by the advice of others, to hold control of the faith and consciences of the people of his former charge, and to pre- vent their enjoying freedom of choice in another religious teacher.
The people, however, proceed deliberately and steadily in the customary and legal mode, first to hire preaching, then to select a candidate to preach on probation for settlement, and finally to elect a minister. The members of the church, who have not seceded, lead in the election. Dr Chaplin's adherents not being pleased with the proceedings of the majority, voluntarily secede from the place of worship and from the congregation, where and with whom they had heretofore met, and procure for them- selves such religious instruction as they like. This they have a perfect right to do, in the enjoyment of true religious freedom. Why could they not permit others to enjoy the same liberty ?
Dr Chaplin, with the seceding church members, hold church meetings. Too feeble, however, to act as moderator himself, he invites a neighbouring minister to perform that service. They remodel their church regulations, adopt more rigid and restric- tive rules, make their hired religious teacher permanent Assistant Moderator of the church, vote to suspend the administration of the Lord's supper, &c. At length they invite an Ecclesiastical Council ' to give advice in their present peculiar circumstances.'
The Council, besides what is made public in their Result, give the additional extraordinary advice to censure and excom- municate all those church members who continued to worship, and receive the administration of divine ordinances, at the accus- tomed place, and in a regular manner; being pleased to style this adherence to duties, 'unchristian walk.' This advice is eagerly pursued. An aged deacon, and the chairman of the selectmen and town's committee for hiring preaching, receive their sentence of exclusion from the ' visible church of Christ.' Similar measures against the other members are in a course of execution.
On the first sabbath after the town had made their election of the Rev. Mr Robinson for their minister, a ' Public Notice,' sub- scribed by Dr Chaplin, for a church meeting to be held in the meetinghouse, is posted. The purpose of the meeting is most extraordinary. 'To take into consideration the subject of giving the Rev. Charles Robinson an invitation to become their col- league pastor.' This subject had been previously discussed by the church which worshipped and received instruction in the place where the meeting is proposed to be held, and decided with perfect unanimity. What business, then, had these seceders to
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come to the place they had some time since abandoned, and in- terfere with the regularly worshipping church and congregation in the election of their minister ?
On the day appointed for this extraordinary meeting, the chair- man of the selectmen, who had just before received the harm- less shock of the most potent fulmination those about to assemble could communicate, receives Dr Chaplin's note, requesting the meetinghouse, into which neither he nor his adherents had for many months entered, to be opened for their reception. Such an answer as the circumstances at the moment dictated, is in haste returned. The meetinghouse is not opened .* The hour arrives. The aged Dr Chaplin with his permanent Assistant Moderator, Mr John Todd, heretofore so 'providentially' sent to Groton, accompanied by nineteen male members of the church, several having been admitted since the preceding No- vember, proceed to the meetinghouse. An assemblage also of some forty or fifty spectators, neither with noise nor with tumult, is collected with mixed emotions of curiosity and wonder at the novelty of the spectacle. They stand at a respectful distance, uncovered during services.
Finding the meetinghouse closed, the church members are gathered upon the door steps. Dr Chaplin opens the meeting with prayer, and addresses the members on the subject which brought them together. If the occasion was extraordinary, this address was not less so. The speaker adverted to the place of their meeting ; thought it more convenient than our forefathers, the New England Pilgrims, enjoyed ; said that their opponents, meaning the majority in Groton, were rather 'rigid and severe' against them, but that they themselves appealed ' to the law and to the testimony' for the rectitude of their conduct and the jus- tice of their cause. He cautioned the members against acting under the influence of prejudice in the vote they were about to give in the election of Mr Robinson, and said that if he was a ' preacher of the gospel sent by Christ,' though they might dis- like his manner, &c. they ought not to reject him. He farther observed that 'if their opponents would let them alone, and not quarrel with them, they, their opponents, might have just such preaching as they loved;' they would not hinder them. Such a sentiment, uttered when in the overt act of interfering and oppos- ing the doings of those they are pleased to call opponents, is in- explicable on any other ground, than that the speaker did not
. Perhaps it would have been harmless, perhaps prudent, for the chairman of the selectmen to have granted the request of Dr Chaplin, asking no questions; but he thought it equally harmless and prudent, and he chose rather, under all cir- cumstances, first to propound the questions contained in his reply.
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understand the proceedings in which he was engaged, in all their connexions and circumstances, but was merely an instrument in the hands of unskilful workmen.
The vote was taken on the question of Mr Robinson's election by yeas and nays, on written ballots, and on counting, there were found to be twenty nays, and no yeas. * Amongst other church business then transacted was the vote of excommunication against one, for his ' unchristian walk' in joining the celebration of the Lord's supper with others in the meetinghouse. A pious son of the excommunicated person was one of the members present, and voted against his father when the question was put. This would serve for a back ground to the 'fine painting' afterwards hung up for the inspection of the Council. The Assistant Moder- ator closed the meeting with prayer. No complaint, it is believ- ed, was ever made of any interruption or indecorous conduct, on the part of the spectators.
Thus ended one of the most extraordinary meetings, taken in all its circumstances, relations, and connexions, ever held, per- haps, by professing Christians, for christian purposes, in Massa- chusetts.
October 31st, a large and respectable Council assembled, by virtue of letters missive from the church and congregation of the town or first parish in Groton, to install the Rev. C. Robinson. The proceedings of the church and town were communicated to the Council, and three persons, calling themselves a committee of the church in Groton, laid before them the following remon- strance.
' To the Ecclesiastical Council convened at Groton, Mass. October 31st, 1826, for the Purpose of Installing the Rev. Charles Robinson, &c. &c.
' In behalf of the church of Christ in Groton over which the Rev. Daniel Chaplin D. D. was ordained pastor in 1778, the subscribers beg leave to lay before this Ecclesiastical Council, the following in- formation in the form of a remonstrance.
' This church, having been informed that a Council would meet this day, for the purpose of organization previous to installing the Rev. Charles Robinson, appointed the subscribers to state reasons, why, in the opinion of this church, it is inexpedient and unchristian for this Council to proceed to install Mr Robinson.
' There are two points which we wish to make appear plain to this Council.
'1. That a religious teacher or pastor cannot be called and settled over this church and parish without the joint concurrence of each body expressed by a separate vote.
* Of the 20 church members who voted on the door steps, Dr Chaplin himself was one, one belonged to Westford, one had been admitted in October, 1825, after Mr Todd came to Groton, and two had been admitted since that time.
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' 2. That the Rev. Charles Robinson has never been invited to become our pastor by the joint concurrence of the first church and parish in Groton.
' If these two propositions can be made evident, we trust this Coun- cil will not proceed to the installation of Mr Robinson.
' We are to prove, Ist. That a religious teacher or pastor cannot be called and settled over this church and parish without the joint concurrence of cach body expressed by a separate vote.
' We shall not attempt to instruct this Council as to the design of our Lord Jesus Christ in establishing a church on earth. If there be any meaning in language, his church was to be something very different from the world. It was chosen out of the world; com- manded to be separate from the world, and not to be conformed to its principles and maxims. His religion required his church to be holy, and took it as indisputable, that the world at large, before being cleansed by "the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost," is unholy. Do this Council, then, believe that a church of Jesus Christ, in regular standing according to the gospel, and according to the principles and organization of the earliest churches in Massachusetts, and as recognised in the Cambridge Platform and in the laws of this Commonwealth, do they believe such a church can alienate or surrender her right of electing her pastor to any other body ? That this church is a regular church as above, will not be disputed. We do not say that a church can impose a pastor on a people. This we do not pretend. But if a church surrender her right of electing her pastor, where is the safety of her existence ? Was it not because this right was wrested from her hands that the church fled from England to the wilderness of America, that she might exercise this right? But if this Council sanctions the princi- ple that a parish or any body may impose a pastor over a church, then do they sanction the principles that drove our pilgrim fathers from their homes across the waters. They fled to avoid these very principles.
' By examining the laws of this State, the following facts will be found to exist; that for about seventyfive years after the settlement of the Massachusetts Colony, the Congregational church was known in law as a corporation distinct from the town; that from 1665 to 1780, the alliance of the church with the town or parish, was estab- lished by law, upon condition that the pastor should be settled by a major vote of the church and society as two distinct corporate bodies ; that in the year 1754, the churches in this State, thus organized and known in law, were made a body corporate to hold property, and this while in the legal possession of the right of electing their pastor ; that the Bill of Rights of 1780 cannot and does not destroy corpo- rations and rights established by law and enjoyed one hundred and fifty years; and irresistible circumstantial evidence can be brought to show, that no such thing was understood or intended by the free- men of the State who adopted the Constitution; and that instead of divesting the church of her immemorial and corporate right to a vote in the election of her pastor, the Bill of Rights does, according to the
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only construction possible to be put on it, without making the instru- ment selfcontradictory, confirm the mutual rights of the church and society, as they had existed from the year 1665 to 1780.
' Such would be our reasons for remonstrating against having the rights of a church wrested from her in any case; viz. the laws of Christ and of this State have given her rights separate from the town or parish. One of these rights is that of electing her own min- ister or pastor, and this right the church ought not in any case to relinquish, and cannot do it without endangering her very existence. But the church of Christ in Groton has her rights guarded if possible still more safely. By turning to the special laws of this State, it will be seen that an act was passed in the Legislature, Feb. 21, 1804, establishing a fund for the support of the gospel ministry in this town. This fund now amounts, as we believe, to nearly or quite $11,000. By this act of the Legislature there was " constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of the Trustees of Groton Ministerial Fund." These trustees were to be "the three senior selectmen of said town for the time being, the treasurer of said parish, and the jun- ior deacon, by age, of said church, both for the time being." 'The proceeds of this fund were to be paid "quarterly to such teacher or teachers of religion as shall be regularly ordained and settled in said parish by the joint concurrence of the inhabitants and church thereof."
' The Council will see, that by this enactment of the Legislature, language cannot be construed in such a manner as to wrest from this church the right of a distinct voice in the election of her pastor. She cannot compel the parish to take a pastor of her choice, nor does she wish to do it. Neither can the parish compel the church to take a pastor of their choice. The election must be mutual. It is a social compact sanctioned by law, and until this compact is legal- ly dissolved, neither party can control the other. That this church has not broken this compact we expect to show before we close. If there be any doubt in the minds of this Council, that a joint concur- rence of the church and parish in this town, expressed by a separate vote of each body, is necessary, we respectfully request them to ex- amine the act referred to above. By this we mean that the rights of one party will be violated, if a pastor is called and settled, and is paid out of the fund, without the concurrence of the other party. That the Rev. Charles Robinson has been called to settle here with the expectation of all concerned, that he will receive the proceeds of the fund, we presume will not be denied.
' We have now attempted to establish the point that the first church and parish in Groton are united in a legal compact, and that if a pas- tor is settled over this joint corporation, it must be by a joint concur- rence of each party ; and if such a pastor is forced upon one party by the other, it is oppression, and there is legal redress. As the whole ground over which we are now treading, may be hereafter critically examined, we wish this Council to have all necessary information laid before them, before they proceed to act, that they may not hereafter accuse themselves of having acted in ignorance or
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haste. If a course of legal measures become necessary, the following facts can be abundantly-substantiated.
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