USA > New York > New York City > A history of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of New York > Part 6
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No clearer evidence of this could be desired than the Pastoral Letter which was issued by the Presby- terian General Assembly, sitting at New York about a month after the battle of Lexington. It deserves the more a place in this history because Dr. Rodgers served on the committee of two ministers and four laymen who prepared it. After a long opening ex- hortation, it proceeds to "offer a few advices to the societies under our charge, as to their public and general conduct."
"First. In carrying on this important struggle, let every opportunity be taken to express your attach- ment and respect to our sovereign, King George, and to the revolution principles by which his august family was seated on the British throne. We rec- ommend, indeed, not only allegiance to him from duty and principle, as the first magistrate of the em- pire, but esteem and reverence for the person of the prince who has merited well of his subjects on many accounts, and who has probably been misled into the late and present measures by those about him; neither have we any doubt that they themselves have been in a great degree deceived by false information from interested persons residing in America. It
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gives us the greatest pleasure to say, from our own certain knowledge of all belonging to our communion, and from the best means of information of the far greatest part of all denominations in the country, that the present opposition to the measures of admin- istration does not in the least arise from disaffection to the King or a desire of separation from the parent state. ... We exhort you, therefore, to continue in the same disposition, and not to suffer oppression, or injury itself, easily to provoke you to anything which may seem to betray contrary sentiments. Let it ever appear that you only desire the preservation and security of those rights which belong to you as freemen and Britons, and that reconciliation upon these terms is your most ardent desire."
The rest of this document, also, is so clear an exposition of the attitude of Presbyterians at the be- ginning of the war that the quotation may properly be extended. The letter proceeds as follows:
"Secondly. Be careful to maintain the union which at present subsists through all the Colonies. Nothing can be more manifest than that the success of every measure depends on its being inviolably preserved, and therefore we hope that you will leave nothing undone which can promote that end. In particular, as the Continental Congress, now sitting at Philadelphia, consists of delegates chosen in the most free and unbiased manner by the body of the people, let them not only be treated with respect and encouraged in their difficult service,-not only let your prayers be offered up to God for his direction in their proceedings,-but adhere firmly to their res- olutions; and let it be seen that they are able to
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bring out the whole strength of this vast country to carry them into execution.
"Thirdly. We do earnestly exhort and beseech the societies under our care to be strict and vigilant in their private government, and to watch over the morals of their several members. It is with the ut- most pleasure we remind you that the last Conti- nental Congress determined to discourage luxury in living, public diversions, and gaming of all kinds, which have so fatal an influence on the morals of the people. ... As it has been observed by many emi- nent writers that the censorial power, which had for its object the manners of the public in the ancient free states, was absolutely necessary to their contin- uance, we cannot help being of opinion that the only thing which we have now to supply the place of this is the religious discipline of the several sects with re- spect to their own members; so that the denomina- tion or profession which shall take the most effectual care of the instruction of its members, and maintain its discipline in the fullest vigor, will do the most essential service to the whole body.
"Fourthly. We cannot but recommend and urge in the warmest manner a regard to order and the public peace; and, as in many places during the confusions that prevail, legal proceedings have be- come difficult, it is hoped that all persons will con- scientiously pay their just debts, and to the utmost of their power serve one another, so that the evils inseparable from a civil war may not be augmented by wantonness and irregularity.
"Fifthly. We think it of importance at this time to recommend to all of every rank, but especially to
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those who may be called to action, a spirit of hu- manity and mercy. Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood. It is impossible to appeal to the sword without being exposed to many scenes of cruelty and slaughter; but it is often observed that civil wars are carried on with a rancor and spirit of revenge much greater than those between independent states. The inju- ries received, or supposed, in civil wars, wound more deeply than those of foreign enemies. It is there- fore the more necessary to guard against this abuse and recommend that meekness and gentleness of spirit which is the noblest attendant upon true valor. That man will fight most bravely who never fights till it is necessary, and who ceases to fight as soon as the necessity is over. .
"We conclude with our most earnest prayer that the God of heaven may bless you in your temporal and spiritual concerns, and that the present unnat- ural dispute may be speedily terminated by an equitable and lasting settlement on constitutional principles." * This noble letter was dated May 22d, a Monday. Six days later, we may be sure, it was read from the pulpit of the New Church.
During the summer of 1775 military operations, we learn, continued to be active. McDougal was now Colonel of a regiment. "Colonel" Lasher was another Presbyterian who had been promoted. His battalion was reviewed by Major-General Schuyler on July 3d, "in the presence of a very respectable number of principal gentlemen and ladies." It was remarked that "they went through the exercises and
' Assembly Digest," pp. 480-482.
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evolutions with the greatest order, alertness and decorum." * Toward the end of August some shots were exchanged between His Majesty's ship Asia and this same battalion of Colonel Lasher's. On November 15th, John Morin Scott writes: "All business stagnated; the city half deserted for fear of a bombardment. . .. Nothing from t'other side of the water but a fearful looking for of wrath. Our continental petition most probably contemned; the bulk of the nation, it is said, against us; and a bloody campaign next summer. But let us be pre- pared for the worst,-who can prize life without lib- erty ? It is a bauble only fit to be thrown away."
It is not surprising that the regular ongoing of the church life was, by this time, greatly interrupted. Even in the session records, usually reticent in re- gard to contemporary events, the state of turmoil now becomes evident. The omission of one of the stated meetings of the session, for instance, is attrib- uted to "the confusion our city was then in, by rea- son of our public trouble." On the morning of the last Thursday in November (the day, as it happens, which we now celebrate as our day of national Thanks- giving) the people assembled in the New Church to observe a day of prayer and fasting "on account of the melancholy situation of our public affairs." A few lines beyond this entry the records stop short, not to be resumed for eight long years.
For a few weeks or months, however, the church life in a measure continued. Dr. Rodgers, toward the end of February, 1776, removed his family to
* Gaines's Mercury," July 17th.
t "New York City during the American Revolution."
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a place of safety near the city, but he himself went in and out as his duties required. In April he waited on General Washington, then in New York to pre- pare for its defence, and was received with great con- sideration. The General, we are told, "followed him to the door, and observed that his name had been mentioned to him in Philadelphia . as a gentleman whose fidelity to the interest and liberties of the country might be relied on, and who might be capable of giving him important information; and added, 'May I take the liberty, Sir, to apply to you, with this view, whenever circumstances may render it desirable ?'"'
A city preparing for a siege was, of course, no place for women and children, and within a few weeks after this conversation a general exodus had begun. Be- fore long, none of Dr. Rodgers' congregation re- mained save the men who were on duty in the pa- triot ranks, and those who had determined to remain loyal to Great Britain, the latter constituting a very small minority .* Dr. Rodgers, however, was not left without an occupation. In April he was ap- pointed chaplain to General Heath's Brigade, sta- tioned near Greenwich Village, on Manhattan Isl- and. His service continued through the summer and autumn and was prosecuted with his usual energy. After a brief interval spent in Georgia on private business, he was again claimed for public service as chaplain of the Convention of the State of New York (April, 1777). Later he held the same
* Among Presbyterian loyalists were Andrew Elliot, Collector of the Port, and later (1778) Superintendent of Police; Samuel Bayard, Deputy Secretary of the Province; and James Jauncey (a pewholder).
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office in the Council of Safety and in the first Legis- lature of the State .*
But in valuable service to the American cause the minister was outdone by many of his parishioners. Alexander McDougal, who had been Colonel of the first troops raised in New York, was Brigadier-Gen- eral in 1776, and Major-General in 1777. He took part in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, and Germantown, and served in the New Jersey Cam- paign. Later he had command of important posts on the Hudson. Washington spoke of him as "a brave soldier and a disinterested patriot." t John Morin Scott, who had been, perhaps, the most influ- ential member of the Committee of One Hundred,
* During the latter part of the war, Dr. Rodgers, having no public duty to perform, spent his time in such temporary pastoral work as offered it- self. After a brief service in Sharon, Conn., he in 1778 took up his resi- dence in Amenia, N. Y., where he continued as minister of the church for about two years (see "Early History of Amenia," by Newton Reed, p. 41). We learn from the records of "The Society in Amenia Precinct" that Dr. Rodgers received at first fifteen dollars a Sunday for his services, his parishioners agreeing "to pay the money to him, or lay it out for Provi- sions for him either of which Doct. Rogers Chuses." Several months later it was voted "that this Society give to Doct. Roges 10 dollars per Sabbath during the continuance of the State Act," while a committee of two was appointed to collect provisions and "other necessaries" for him. Still later we find one man directed to "provide Forage for Doct. Rogers for the ensuing year," six men together are to supply some one hundred pounds of butter, while three other individuals provide "1 pig about 100 lbs, " "1 do. and a Beef" and "600wt pork." In a historical paper read in Amenia in 1876 by Newton Reed, Esq., the following reference to Dr. Rodgers appears: "He was very courteous and winning in his manners. . .. As an evidence that this courtly gentleman had the good sense to accommodate himself to the simplicity of his rural parish, it was told of him that he made an afternoon's visit with his wife and daughters, to the family of one of his parishioners, riding in an ox-cart." During the last years of the war Dr. Rodgers performed pastoral duties in Danbury, Conn., and Lamington, N. J.
t "Writings of Washington," Vol. IX, p. 186.
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was equally prominent in the Provincial Congress and rendered important service in drawing up the state constitution. He was appointed one of the first Brigadier-Generals in June, 1776, and was with the army until he became Secretary of State (1777- 1779). It is gratifying to see that when the time of action came, these two men, noted at first for an en- thusiasm which seemed sheer recklessness to the timid, had in reserve the wisdom and strength req- uisite for real leadership. No doubt, moreover, they had themselves developed under experience. The historian Bancroft, speaking of the policy of caution which New York followed even in the period imme- diately preceding active hostilities, and pointing out its wisdom from a strategic point of view, affirms that this policy was then "maintained alike by the prudent and the bold; by Livingston and Jay, by John Morin Scott and McDougal."
Some of the Presbyterians rendered most distin- guished service as civil officers of the new govern- ment. Peter V. B. Livingston was, in 1775, President of the Provincial Congress, and later Treasurer of the State. In the former office he was followed by his kinsman and fellow-church-member, Peter R. Livingston, who was also Colonel of Militia from 1775 to 1780. Ebenezer Hazard, who had been Postmaster for the district of New York in 1775, served as Surveyor-General of Post Offices of the United States from 1777 to 1782 and was afterward Postmaster-General.
But to return to the military branch of the public service: Colonel Lasher we already know, (the shoe- maker "of the lowest extraction"). John Broome
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was Lieutenant-Colonel of Militia. Nicholas Ber- rian, Prentice Bowen, John Quackenbos, and Jere- miah Wool were Presbyterians who rose to the rank of Captain. Peter Vergereau was a Lieutenant. And to these must be added the long list of men who served in the ranks,* many of them men of the high- est standing, like Peter V. B. Livingston and Eben- ezer Hazard, whose civil offices have been enumer- ated above.
It would be unnecessary, even if practicable, to follow the fortunes of these individual Presbyterians through the whole war. After the British had taken possession of New York, these men were, of course, scattered as the exigencies of the war demanded. Many of them were never to see again the home or the church which they had abandoned for freedom's sake.
The church building, meantime, rooted on Man- hattan Island, was unwillingly rendering service to the enemy. It had escaped the disastrous fire which raged through the city a few nights after the British took possession and which destroyed the parsonage, but, as was to have been expected, it had been put to secular uses by the invaders, and soon began to
* The following list includes only those soldiers whose identification as New York Presbyterians seems practically certain. Positive knowledge in such a matter can hardly be obtained. The list would be twice as long had less rigid tests been applied: Alexander Anderson, William Barber, Samuel Broome, David Campbell, William Frazier, William Gordon, Thomas Graham, Joseph Hallet, Robert Harpur, Joseph Hawkins, Ebenezer Hazard, William Inglis, Thomas Jackson, John King, James Lamb, Peter V. B. Livingston, John McDougal, John Michael, Robert Nesbit, John North, Alexander Patterson, Joseph Pierson, Philip Pelton, Isaac Slover, Benjamin Smith, Gilbert Smith, Melancthon Smith, Robert Stewart, William Todd, Daniel Turner, Abraham Van Gelder, Nathaniel Weekeş.
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show the effects of rough treatment. For a time, we are told, it was made to serve as a prison, but after- ward, and through the greater part of the war, it was used as a hospital for the prisoners. In this way the church, though in the hands of the enemy, did, in a measure, serve the patriot cause, but the measure was, after all, but scant, for the hospital, as de- scribed by one who had experience of it, must have seemed to provide little more than a roof to die under.
The description comes to us from one Levi Han- ford, who had been taken sick in late December, 1777, on one of the prison ships in the river. "We were taken," he says, "to the Hospital in Dr. Rod- gers' Brick Meeting House (afterward Dr. Spring's), near the foot of the Park. From the yard I carried one end of a bunk, from which some person had just died, into the church, and got into it, exhausted and overcome. Wine and some other things were sent in by our Government for the sick; the British fur- nished nothing. [The doctor] was an American surgeon and a prisoner,-had been taken out of prison to serve in the hospital. . . . Of all places, that was the last to be coveted; disease and death reigned there in all their terrors. I have had men die by the side of me in the night, and have seen fifteen dead bodies sewed up in their blankets and laid in the corner of the yard at one time, the product of one twenty-four hours. Every morning at eight o'clock the dead-cart came, the bodies were put in, the men drew their rum, and the cart was driven off to the trenches." *
* Disosway, p. 145.
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One attempt was made during the war to restore the church to its religious uses. In the fall of 1780 the two Presbyterian loyalists, Elliot, then Lieuten- ant-Governor, and Smith, the Chief Justice, started a movement to this effect, and proposed that Dr. Rodgers be invited to return to the city and conduct services in the restored church. Governor Robert- son promised his cooperation in this somewhat sur- prising plan. That Dr. Rodgers would have acqui- esced in it is impossible. We are not surprised that to most of the loyalists the proposal seemed as absurd as it was objectionable. They, on their part, con- sidered the Presbyterian minister "to be a person of rigid republican principle, a rebellious, seditious preacher, a man who had given more encouragement to rebellion by his treasonable harangues from the pulpit than any other republican preacher, perhaps, on the continent." Smith and Elliot knew, of course, that these ferocious opinions were exaggerated by hatred, and their own proposal is a tribute to the old relation of confidence and esteem between pastor and people, but they were, as might have been ex- pected, unable to carry their point. The most prac- tical difficulty was met in the veto of Dr. Booth, the British Superintendent of Hospitals, who said that he could not surrender the church unless pro- vided with its equivalent elsewhere .*
It is asserted that the British Government paid a rental for those churches in New York which were seized and used during the English occupation, but it is also admitted that the money went no fur- ther than to the barrack-masters. Certainly no com-
* Jones "N. Y. in Rev.," Vol. II, p. 2.
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pensation was received by the Presbyterians for the use of the New Church or for the damage done to it; and at the end of the war little more than the shell was left. Within, it was completely dismantled.
CHAPTER VI
RESTORATION AND PROGRESS: 1783-1808
"The Lord doth build up Jerusalem; he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."-Psalm 147 : 2 f.
"Their numbers greatly reduced by death and by permanent removals to the country, the pecuniary resources of all of them impaired and of many of them ex- hausted, both their houses of worship in a state little short of complete ruin, their parsonage burnt, and a considerable debt accumulated in consequence of their long exclusion from the city-it may be supposed that nothing but Christian faith could have preserved them from total discouragement."-SAMUEL MILLER "Memoirs of John Rodgers," p. 243.
O N November 13th, 1783, nearly two weeks before New York City was finally evacu- ated by the British, the following notice appeared in "The New York Packet and the Ameri- can Advertiser:" * "The Members of the Presby- terian Congregation are requested, at the desire of some of the late Trustees, to meet at the New Brick Church, This Afternoon at Four o'Clock, to provide means for putting their Church in order for Public Worship."
The New Church had suffered less than the building on Wall Street,; and it was, accordingly, chosen as the one to be immediately repaired. The need became increasingly urgent after the British evacuation, when large numbers of Presbyterians
* A semi-weekly sheet printed by "Samuel Loudon, No. 5, Water- Street, between the Coffee-House and the Old Slip."
t The latter building had been used as a barrack by the enemy.
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returned to the city, so that Dr. Rodgers soon found himself surrounded by a considerable congregation for whom no place of worship was yet provided.
At this juncture an unexpected and most welcome offer was made by the vestry of Trinity Church. It was proposed, in a spirit of Christian courtesy, that St. George's and St. Paul's chapels should be used alternately by the Presbyterians until their own place of worship had been restored. The offer was ac- cepted and this arrangement continued from Novem- ber, 1783, until the following June.
Thus is explained the unusual fact that the ser- mon, whose manuscript is still in existence, preached by Dr. Rodgers on the day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, recommended by Congress and observed throughout the United States on December 11th, 1783, was delivered in an Episcopal church, St. George's, corner of Beekman and Cliff Streets .* The text was taken from Psalm 126 : 3, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad," and the sermon is a faithful ascription of praise to God for all the providences and mercies of the war.
It is always interesting to see events through the eyes of a contemporary, when he is as well qualified to describe and estimate them as Dr. Rodgers was. The special evidences of the favor of God which he enumerates are certainly well chosen. First, he men- tions "that union which proved our strength in the day of trial," and which was so difficult of attain- ment that men might readily ascribe it to the benev-
* It was repeated by Dr. Henry van Dyke in the present Brick Church on the one hundredth anniversary of "Evacuation Day," November 25th, 1883.
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olent intervention of God. He continues by pointing out that the first attack of the enemy was providen- tially made "upon a place where our greatest strength lay," that throughout the war, and in spite of war's ravages, there was abundance of provisions of every kind, and that the general health, both in the country at large and in the army, had, on the whole, been astonishingly good. The choice of the commander- in-chief is singled out as an event peculiarly indica- tive of the divine guidance, "for," says Dr. Rodgers, "by his commanding address, exemplary patience, and invincible fortitude, he encouraged and taught our soldiers to endure the greatest hardships, and prepared our army for disbanding, when no other man could have done it." * Finally, the preacher ascribes to the Lord of hosts "the success of our arms," and in a brief survey of the war he points out the many instances in which a power greater than man's might be clearly discerned. As he closes, he paints contrasting pictures of the desolations of war and the blessings of peace, which must have been most affecting to his hearers, and ends with a sol- emn reminder of the serious evils existing in the national character, in part the product of the war
* The following letter, now in the possession of Dr. Rodgers' great- grandson, Mr. Robertson Rodgers, refers to a copy of the printed form of this sermon:
Philadelpa 5th May 1784
Dear Sir The Thanksgiving Sermon which you did me the favor to send me I read with much pleasure, & pray you to accept my thanks for it, & the favorable mention you have been pleased to make of me therein.
My compliments await Mrs Rogers-With great esteem and respect I remain dr Sir-
Yr most obedt & affect Ser Go Washington
The Rev. Docr Rogers
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and unhappily surviving it, and reminds the people that of all the good things now restored to them nothing could be compared in importance with the renewed privileges and duties of religion .* 9
The repairs in the New Church were accomplished at a cost of thirteen hundred pounds sterling, f a large sum, it was thought, but necessitated by the high price of all materials at that time. The first service in the restored church was held on June 27th, 1784, Dr. Rodgers preaching from the text, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." It was most encouraging to discover that the demand for pews was at once greater than the sup- ply, showing that the Wall Street Church must also be repaired, and this was done in the course of the next year.
Fortunately, a description of the interior of the church on Beekman Street, as it looked after the restoration, has come down to us. Indeed, with the help of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, whose diary happily includes an account of his visit to New York in 1787, we are enabled to attend both morning and evening service on a certain Sunday in July of that year, which will be much pleasanter than to examine the empty church.
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