USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Princeton > The history of Princeton, Worcester county, Mass. from its first settlement; with a sketch of the present religious controversy in that place. Designed for the use of the inhabitants > Part 6
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The reasons set forth in this letter seem not to have satis- fied the town of the necessity of a dismission, and a commit- tee was chosen to request the attendance of Mr. Russell at the adjournment of the meeting, to answer publicly to such questions as might be put to him,-a course of proceeding as extraordinary as the result of it must have been unpleasant. This drew from him the following communication :-
" To the inhabitants of Princeton :
Gentlemen,-You will consider, I presume, that the hap- piness of this town, in future years, depends much on your conducting the business before you in a peaceable, friendly manner,-and I do most sincerely desire, looking at the good of the town in future, that you may do nothing to create di- vision in the society, or to prejudice the public mind, or the minds of individuals, who may be introduced into the town, against it. As for myself, I can sincerely say, that whatever may be the conduct of individuals towards me,-though they attempt to wound my feelings, and load me with abuse, I ever have been and still am a friend to the town,-and am per- fectly ready to do any thing in my power, consistent with the respect due to my public character, towards the settlement of the business before us in a friendly way. From the commu- nication which I have made to the church, to the selectmen, and to many individuals in all parts of the town, I am ready to think that the inhabitants generally have correct and thor- ough information respecting my reasons for desiring a removal from my pastoral office in this town, and if individuals do not feel disposed to allow validity to those reasons, on the ground
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of my own testimony, I know that it will be in my power to give them satisfaction .- I freely declare my readiness, gen- tlemen, to afford you all the information on the subject, which can in the least assist towards your forming a judicious decis- ion on the business before you ;- and I am willing to answer at a proper place every friendly inquiry which an honest de- sire to arrive at truth may suggest ;- but to such questions as passion, prejudice, or a disposition to cavil may dictate I shall pay no attention. Considering the relation existing between us, it is your right, as I have proposed a dissolution of this relation, to know my reasons for desiring it. These reasons I have no wish to keep private; they are already before you for your consideration while attending to the business in which you (we) are mutually concerned. But, on the other hand, should any individuals be curiously inquisitive concerning my own personal concerns, these I claim the right of keeping to myself and conducting at pleasure, without being accountable to any man, or society of men .- In reply to the vote of the town, handed me by my friend Capt. Dana, I answer directly, that I am ready to meet this afternoon a committee from the town on the business of my dismission, and to repeat to them if necessary the statements which I have already made in public and private. Believing that this mode of communica- tion if pursued will lead directly to every explanation which can be useful to you, and which any individual who is a true friend of the town can reasonably desire, you will permit me to decline a personal attendance at the meeting .- Accept, gentlemen, the tender of my respects.
(Signed) JOSEPH RUSSELL.
Princeton, Sept. 21st. 1801."
For the better comprehension of some of the allusions in the above letter, it is necessary to remark, that Mr. Russell had been accused of desiring a release from the pastoral rela- tion from merely selfish views, being anxious to enter upon some more lucrative employment ; a charge which, if well founded, shows the town little wise, and still less alive to their spiritual interests, in attempting, against his will, to re- tain such a personage in the pastoral office ; while if unfound- ed, it betrayed the deepest malignity in individuals, and dis- played a want of confidence on the part of the town, in its momentary entertainment, alone sufficient to call for a disso-
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lution of the relation in which Mr. Russell stood to them. The right of the town to take cognizance of the matter, sup- posing he did wish a more lucrative occupation and a dismission on this account solely, is extremely questionable. While the fact that the charge rested only on vague and indefinite hints should have at once destroyed all credence to it. The last letter of Mr. Russell seems to have convinced the town of both these truths, and he was dismissed without farther oppo- sition.
Soon after Mr. Russell's dismission, the Rev. now Dr. James Murdock commenced preaching to the church and so- ciety in Princeton, and on the 18th of March, 1802, received a unanimous invitation from the former, and on the 5th of April, from the latter, with the exception of a single dissent- ing vote, to become their minister. To this invitation Mr. Murdock returned a conditionally affirmative answer. The encouragement offered Dr. Murdock by the town was a salary of $366 2-3 and the improvement of a farm which they had previously purchased as a parsonage, worth probably $60 more. The additional stipulations which he desired may be best learned from his reply.
" To the Church and Town of Princeton :
Having considered your joint invitation to settle with you in the work of the Gospel Ministry, I have after much serious deliberation, and after asking council of the great Disposer of Events, concluded to accept your invitation, on the condition you agree to the following additional articles :-
First, should any controversy hereafter arise between the Church and the Pastor, or between the Town and the Pastor, which cannot be settled privately to the satisfaction of both parties, or should any complaint be accepted by the Church against the Pastor, a Mutual Council shall immediately be call- ed to hear and determine the matter. And unless a different agreement shall be made by mutual consent, the Council shall consist of an equal number of Pastors and Delegates from sev- en Churches : which Council shall be chosen, regulated and possess such powers as hereafter mentioned, viz. Having mutually agreed upon the first Church, each party shall choose three Churches, of regular standing within this Commonwealth ; these seven churches when met in Council shall regulate their
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own proceedings as they may see fit ; and their decision shall be final as to all matters regularly laid before them.
2d. Should the Pastor wish to take a Journey to visit his friends, or for his health, or for necessary business, he shall be permitted to leave the desk vacant, not exceeding three sab- baths in a year.
3d. Should the Pastor at any future period find himself able to make the purchase, he shall have the privilege of purchas- ing, at $1200, the farm heretofore occupied by the Rev. Mr. Russell and Capt. Henry Prentiss, which the town purchased of Lieut. Bartholomew Cheever, on the 5th day of April, A. D. 1802, on condition that if the Pastor or his heirs should after- wards be disposed to sell the premises, the town shall have the refusal of them. Should the Pastor purchase as aforesaid there shall annually be added the sum of twenty pounds, equal to sixty-six dollars and two-thirds of a dollar, to the sum of one hundred and ten pounds, equal to three-hundred and sixty-six dollars and two-thirds of a dollar, mentioned in the vote of the town, passed the 5th day of April, A. D. 1802.
The first of these articles, viz. that respecting a council, I conceive to be calculated to settle speedily any controversy which might arise to interrupt that harmony and cordiality between minister and people so necessary to mutual happi- ness, and the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom. View- ing the subject in this manner, I cannot but feel strongly im- pressed with a sense of the importance of such an article.
Trusting that you will readily coincide with me in opinion I forbear to add anything farther on this important subject.
The second article is doubtless of much less importance than the first ; yet I think it to be calculated to prevent un- easiness and therefore reasonable and proper.
The third and last article, if I am rightly informed, is not materially different from one in the report of the committee of the town made on the fifth of April, which the town were unable at that meeting to accept, because of a former vote, which was found to be so worded as to interfere with it. Considering the article as calculated to promote the comfort and happiness of my family, without injury to the town, which has so just a claim to my esteem and gratitude, per- suade myself you will be happy in an opportunity of exhibit- ing to the world another proof of that harmonions unanim-
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ity* and liberality, which so highly distinguish the town of Princeton.
Should the Church and Town in their wisdom see fit to insert these additional articles, or the substance of them, I hold myself bound to comply with their joint invitation, and to devote myself to their service in the work of the ministry.
JAMES MURDOCK.
Princeton, April 24th, A. D. 1802."
The town having acceded to the proposals of this letter, Dr. Murdock was ordained June 23d, 1802. The services on this occasion were performed as follows :- the introductory prayer by the Rev. Mr. Goodrich of Rutland, the ordaining prayer by the Rev. Dr. Sumner of Shrewsbury, and the con- cluding prayer by the Rev. Mr. Holcomb of Sterling. The Rev. Mr. Rice of Westminster gave the Charge, and the Rev. Mr. Avery of Holden the Right Hand of Fellow- ship. The Rev. Jonathan Murdock of Bozrah, Ct. preached on the occasion from 1 Peter, i. 12-" Which things the an- gels like to look into." In addition to these churches, whose ministers participated in the services, there was present also that in Boylston, under the charge of the Rev. William Nash.
Dr. Murdock continued minister of the town, possessing the unlimited confidence and esteem of the people of his charge, until the summer of 1815, when he was appointed Professor of the Learned Languages in the University of Vermont, at Burlington, and on the advice of a mutual coun- cil, convened according to one of the stipulations made at his settlement, accepted the appointment. This of course led to a dissolution of his pastoral relation with the town of Prince- ton, much to their sorrow, and with no little regret on his part. Dr. Murdock was dismissed Oct. 11, 1815, and entered immediately on his new sphere of duties at Burlington. The ecclesiastical council which advised and consummated his dismission, close their " Result" with the following remarks :- " While we sympathise with this Church and People under
* Dr. Murdock was here guilty of a slight touch of excusable flattery, or the people have sadly deteriorated in the matter of " unanimity" since those golden days.
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the removal of a Pastor they so highly esteemed, we are no less happy in being able to express our unqualified approbation of the conduct of the Church on this tender subject. The re- spect and kindness which both the Church and People have shown to their minister, and the pleasing union and harmony, which subsist among them, excite a pleasing hope and con- fident expectation, that they will make speedy and successful exertions for the re-settlement of the gospel ministry, and know from long and happy experience "how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."
Soon after the dismission of Dr. Murdock, the Rev. Samuel Clarke commenced preaching to the church and town. Mr. Clarke was understood to differ in some points of religious faith from his predecessor, and the controversy which preced- ed and succeeded his settlement was long and bitter, each party, without doubt, in the phrensied excitement of the mo- ment, pursuing measures ill advised, and still more injudicious- ly carried into effect. Mutual conciliation and concession are rare characteristics of religious controversy, strange and melan- choly as the fact may be. We would not assert that there may not be controversies which pure principle and an unde- viating regard for the dictates of Christianity have originated. Such there undoubtedly are. Yet that religion, whose doc- trines are " peace on earth, and good will to men," and which inculcates love to our neighbor as the second great command, is of a too pure and heaven-born nature to flourish in the col- lision of angry passions, or amid the tumultuous scenes of world- ly strife. Devotion is too tender and delicate a plant to be exposed to the frosts and chills of religious contention. Prin- ciples are indeed sacred, and we would be the last to advise their compromise or surrender. Yet there may be firmness without obstinacy, and decision without offence. If men would but keep in view this truth, religious controversies would entire- ly cease, or, deprived of their acrimony, part with their chief characteristic. How far the people of Princeton may have forgotten this important truth, or ceased for a time to act up- on it, is not for me to say.
The first action of the town with respect to Mr. Clarke, was had June 25th, 1816, when, in accordance with an article of the warrant to that effect, they voted " to instruct the com- mittee for supplying the Pulpit to request Mr. Samuel Clarke to return and preach farther with them in order for a settlement."
8
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
In the August following, a further vote (yeas 102, noes 44) was passed " to give Mr. Clarke a call to settle with them in the work of the ministry." A committee was also appointed at the same meeting to request a church meeting, and, if possi- ble, a concurrence in this invitation. A church meeting was ac- cordingly held, and a vote of non-concurrence passed, nineteen to eight. This at once brought the church and town into col- lision. To a majority of the former, not only were some of the sentiments of Mr. Clarke obnoxious, but they also strenuously resisted the proceedings of the town, as irregular and opposed to ecclesiastical usage, inasmuch as they went directly to the overthrow of what they deemed an essential prerogative of the church, in denying her the right of a distinct and primary choice in the election of a pastor. A majority of the town, on the other hand, were not only warmly attached to the religious views of Mr. Clarke, but disposed to carry out to the full ex- tent, the spirit of the then recent judicial decisions of the state, recognising the church only as a constituent part of the par- ish, and as entitled to no immunities beyond those belonging to it as such. These decisions, which set at variance those of the ecclesiastical assemblies of New-England, were then fresh before the public, and the theme of no little controversy, and may have tended in some degree to have enhanced the troubles attending Mr. Clarke's settlement. The one party, flush with the pleasures of success, pushing their newly ac- quired power to extremes, while the other, equally tenacious of their former privileges, or perhaps still more obstinate in their adherence to them under the sense of their invasion, refused the most trivial concessions, which, under ordinary circumstances, they would readily and cheerfully have granted.
After a second ineffectual attempt to procure the concurrence of the church, the town resolved to proceed independent of it, and accordingly communicated their request to Mr. Clarke, at the same time offering him a salary of six hundred dollars. To this invitation Mr. Clarke returned a negative answer, al- leging as the reason of it, a dislike to become the instrument of division among the inhabitants, and also an entire disincli- nation to settle in the midst of the controversy then raging, and of which there was little probability of an immediate or ultimate cessation. The town and church were at variance not merely on points of form, but essential principles. What
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these were may be best learned from the following extracts from a remonstrance, addressed by the latter to Mr. Clarke, in which is set forth their objections to him. After stating the impossibility of their reception of him as their pastor, they con- tinue, " we are brought to this conclusion, not through dis- affection to your person, nor any deficiency in your abilities, or any fault we find in your moral character, but especially for the two following reasons, which are with us of primary consideration, and which we presume you cannot view with indifference. We present them to you distinctly.
The first is, because we cannot consent to give up our rights and privileges, and sanction the irregularity of receiving a minister in whose call and settlement we have not a primary and distinct choice. We understand it to have been the in- variable custom of the New-England churches, in their earlier and better days, and which has not till of late been disregard- ed, in the first place to make choice of their own minister, and then to invite the town or parish to concur in their elec- tion and call, and to aid in the settlement. This is the prac- tice to which we have ever been accustomed, and which we view as our natural, inherent right, founded in reason and the sacred principles of Christianity, and which we are, at present, by no means prepared to surrender. We hold it as an un- questionable truth, that every church of Christ has an inalien- able right to choose its own pastor and teacher ; and that the exercise of this right is conducive to the prosperity of religion and the welfare of civil society, while the denial or suspension of it is of the most inauspicious tendency. We cannot there- fore view with indifference the introduction of a different prac- tice among our churches, nor without the deepest concern the attempt to introduce it in this place, by the circumstances of the call with which you have been presented.
The other reason why we cannot consent to receive you as our minister, is, because we are not satisfied with the doc- trines which you have preached, and which it is presumed you will continue to preach should you be settled here. However correct you may view yourself, and however many good things you may say, yet we are constrained to think that your scheme of doctrine is not fundamentally that which is reveal- ed in the Holy Scriptures. Without any impeachment of your honesty and sincerity, we must view the gospel which you preach to be radically a different thing from that preach-
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ed by Christ and his apostles, and which the primitive and re- formed churches received. It is with no small concern we have viewed the attempts recently made in our own country to alter and mutilate the sacred records of our faith ; to lower down the character of our divine and adorable Saviour to that of a mere man or of a mere creature ; and to subvert the foundation of our heavenly hopes, laid in the sacrifice of atone- ment offered on the cross. We wish not to have a scheme of religion, of which these are some of the leading principles, preached in this place. However many apparently good things may be mixed with it, we are fully persuaded that it will not conduce to our own edification, to the good of our children, nor to the spiritual welfare of the people in this town."
Such were the objections of a majority of the church to the settlement of Mr. Clarke. Of their validity every one will, of course, be his own judge. The fact that they supposed him to differ from them in his religious faith, was certainly suffi- cient to warrant them in their refusal to receive him as their minister. How far this should have presented an obstacle to his settlement over those who professed to coincide fully in his views, is matter of more question. If the objection on the part of the church was good against Mr. Clarke's 'ordination over the town, a similar one would have been equally valid, on the part of the town, against any candidate which a ma- jority of the church would have selected. The same principle, precisely, which induced one party to accept, inclined the other with equal strength to reject. Hence a separation be- came apparently inevitable. Yet strong as the case would seem, there was, after all, far less difference of sentiments than would at first appear. It is not improbable that had there been less of passion and excitement, coupled with somewhat more of caution and deliberation, as well as a more bountiful share of the soothing spirit of conciliation, the unhappy sep- aration which ensued, might have been in a great measure prevented, and the town spared the melancholy, and, aside from its effects, amusing exhibition of a professedly religious community contending strenulously for twenty years, at last to find themselves quarrelling with redoubled energy, to decide the particular manner in which hostilities shall cease among those, whom a community of views, feelings, and interests, would long ago have united.
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HISTORY OF PRINCETON.
On the 14th of October, 1816, the town met for the con- sideration of Mr. Clarke's reply to their invitation. At this meeting a committee was chosen "to see what further encouragement it would be proper to offer Mr. Clarke as an inducement to settle in the work of the ministry." This committee reported that the same salary as before, with the addition of a " settlement" of four hundred dollars, be offered him. This report was accepted at the adjournment of the meeting on the following day, and the call renewed. Mr. Clarke returned a second negative answer, alleging the same reasons as on the former occasion. In this second invitation the church appears not to have been consulted.
Notwithstanding this repeated refusal of Mr. Clarke, a ma- jority of the town, who had become warmly attached to him, were unwilling to relinquish the hope of an ultimate concur- rence of the church and his final settlement. Accordingly, in January, 1817, a petition, addressed to the selectmen, re- questing them to call a town meeting to renew the invitation to Mr. Clarke, was circulated through the town, and signed by one hundred and five voters. This led to a meeting of the town, February 11, 1817, and a renewal of the invitation, with a request of concurrence on the part of the church. This was again refused, by a vote of twenty to six. In this state of things, the collision between church and town at its height, in the natural excitement of ill feelings engendered in a long and bitter contest, and now inflamed to the utmost point of mutual jealousy and hatred, the two bodies voted to refer their troubles to the decision of a mutual council. And, as if to consummate the contest, this was selected from op- posing sects, a course which we should naturally expect, an expectation fully realized in the event, could have no other effect than to produce a "Result" from the majority and a protest from the minority, each tending to strengthen their own friends in their previously conceived views of right and ex- pediency in the matter. The council called consisted of the church in Worcester under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Ban- croft, the church in Shrewsbury, that in Lancaster, that in Millbury, and that in Rindge,-each of these churches being represented by their pastor and a delegate. The three former were supposed to be favorably inclined to the proceedings of the town, the two latter to those of the church-a supposition which the result proved correct.
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The council assembled March 6th, 1817, and, after an ex- amination of the matter submitted to them, came to the fol- lowing conclusion :-
" That by reason of existing difficulties in this church and town ; and as there is opened by Providence a prospect of the re-settlement of the Christian ministry, if a spirit of mutual condescension and forbearance is in exercise ; this Council do, after due deliberation, and in the persuasion that it will be more conducive to the restoration of union than any other means they can devise, offer for the consideration of this church the following advice : That on the seventeenth day of the present month, the brethren of the church be regularly notified to assemble in church meeting; that, when assem- bled, the original covenant * of this church, a copy of which accompanies the Result of this council, and in which an alter- ation will be found, to conform it to the language of scripture, be submitted to their consideration. We assure the members, who shall adopt this covenant, that we will recognise them as the church of Christ in Princeton. After taking this step, we recommend to them, as soon as may be, to submit to their body the question of concurrence with the town in the elec- tion of Mr. Samuel Clarke to be their minister. In case they shall concur, and he shall accept their invitation, we recom- mend that a joint committee of the church and town be au- thorized to issue letters missive for the purpose of inviting an Ordaining Council to consummate the proposed union."
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