USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Christ Church in the Revolution : a discourse preached before members of the Society of the Cincinnati, and other patriotic organizations, in Christ Church, Philadelphia, February 21st, 1892 > Part 2
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The Congress of 1775-organized as before with Peyton Randolph, a churchman and a vestryman, at its head-was opened May II, by prayers said by the patriot priest of Christ Church and St. Peter's, Parson Duché. Of the members of this Congress, even more were churchmen than was the case the year before; and Christ Church became, as it had been from the first, a centre of patriotic influ- ences. On the 23d of June, 1775, the celebrated Dr. William Smith, provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia, delivered in this church and from this pulpit, the most noteworthy of the many utterances which shaped
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the popular sentiment in the direction of resistance to arbi- trary and alien rule. It was to this discourse on " The Present Situation of American Affairs," more than to any other printed document of the time, that the clear under- standing of the position of our fathers in the view of Eng- lish and American sympathizers was due.
This utterance from this Christ Church pulpit was pub- lished in almost countless editions at home and abroad. It was translated into various languages-German, Swedish, Welsh-and so convincing was its logic, and so attractive was its style, that the Chamberlain of the city of London was at the charge of an edition of ten thousand copies, which were circulated broadcast throughout Great Britain. A little later, July 7, in the same historic church, Parson Duché delivered a scarcely less famous discourse before the First Battalion of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia, on " The Duty of Standing Fast in our Spiritual and Tem- poral Liberties ; " and a few weeks afterward another discourse on "The American Vine." which secured an equal celebrity, as full of patriotic sentiments and counsel suited to the times.
The records of the united parish give us the history of this last discourse. On the fifteenth of June, the aged rector of the churches, the Rev. Dr. Richard Peters, con- vened the vestry, and called their attention to the recom- mendation of the Continental Congress that Thursday, July 20, should be observed as a day of general humiliation, fasting and prayer through all the American provinces. On the rector's request for advice as to his conduct, the liberty-loving spirit of the vestry and people of Christ Church and St. Peter's was plainly shown. The record pro- ceeds as follows : " The vestry very readily told him that they knew the sense of the congregations in this matter,
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and assured him it would be universally expected by them that he should comply with the recommendation, and that if he did not it would give great offense. As this was the unanimous opinion of the vestry, the rector declared his own sense of the matter, and announced that there should be proper prayers and services suitable to such a solemn humiliation."
Marshall, in the interesting diary from which we have already quoted, minutely details the circumstances of this " memorable day," "This being the memorable day," writes Marshall, "in which an unjust and cruel ministry took away all our sea trade, as far as their inveterate malice could reach ; the morning was pleasant, fine sun- shine, yet cool and agreeable weather, although a melan- choly appearance presented, as all the houses and shops in our neighborhood were shut, and to appearance more still than a First Day produced, as there was no riding abroad or visiting as is generally on First Day. Most families attended divine worship. I went to Christ Church where an excellent sermon was preached on the occasion from Psalm xxx, 14, unto a large and crowded auditory, among whom, I presume, all the delegates. It was an awful meeting, as numbers of wet eyes demonstrated their atten- tion. . . . There was nigh 200 of the military came up to church in their uniforms."
Would that we could paint the scene of this "awful meeting." It was as to a spiritual home that the great body of delegates came. A number of them were regular atten- dants or worshippers there. Franklin,* doubtless, oc- cupied his accustomed place. The noble form of the .
*Benj. Franklin, William Bingham and Elias Boudinot, honored and venerable names, were subscribers to the Christ Church chimes in 1751, Dorr's Christ Church, p. 99. Franklin was a manager of the lottery to complete the spire of the Church and provide the bells. Dorr's Christ Church, pp. 100-101.
Benjamin Rush
Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
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Father of His Country, whose diary records his strict observance of the fast-day for the country appointed at Williamsburg, Va., the year before, was regularly seen at the services of his beloved Church in this holy place, till called to the field on which he was to win the guerdon of glory in securing the freedom of his native land. Churchmen renowned as patriots were here in numbers John Morton the Chester churchman, a devoted friend of liberty from the start, whose was the privilege and preeminent distinction of giving the casting vote of the Pennsylvania delegation for Independence-a vote which was either to confirm or destroy the unanimity of the action of the Thirteen Colonies in the assertion of their freedom, was in his place that day as an earnest worshipper, and a devout communicant of the Church. There too were George Ross-son of the saintly priest of the Church who minis- tered for more than half a century at Immanuel Church New Castle, and his brother-in-law, Caesar Rodney, another earnest churchman, and a grandson of the Rev. Thomas Crawford, first rector of this church, whose casting vote turned Delaware in the scale for Independence. Francis Hopkinson * recorded as from New Jersey, the poet of the popular cause, and for years, a Warden of Christ Church, as well as a constant and devoted communicant at this altar, was here. Samuel Chase, of Maryland, son of the rector of St. Paul's, Baltimore; and Elbridge Gerry, of Mas- sachusetts, baptized in the little church at Marblehead, both churchmen, were here. Hooper, of North Carolina, son
*Francis Hopkinson received the thanks of Christ Church Vestry for teaching and instructing the children of the United Congregations of Christ Church and St. Peter's in psalmody, April 3, 1864. Dorr's Christ Church p. 147. "Mr. Church- warden Hopkinson having performed on the organ during the absence of the late organist" was asked by the Vestry to continue his services "and cheerfully acquiesced." Ibid p. 163.
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of a former rector of Trinity, Boston, and a life long churchman, was here. Maj. John Sullivan, New Hamp- shire's sturdy churchman, was possibly in the field. Thomas Johnson, Maryland's most distinguished delegate, whose was. the privilege of nominating Washington as commander-in-chief of the American Armies, was a devout churchman and a constant attendant here. Francis Lewis, a "signer," the rich New York importer, a vestryman of old Trinity, the son and grandson of a clergyman and the nephew of a Dean of St. Paul's, whose son was the cele- brated Gen. Morgan Lewis, first President of the New York Cincinnati, worshipped here, and with him the dis- tinguished Robert R. Livingston, also a Trinity vestryman who was an original "Son of Liberty," and was on the committee to draft the Declaration, and later on as Chan- cellor of New York, administered the oath of office to President Washington in 1789. The Hon. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, a warden of Trin- ity, New York, and the young soldier, John Marshall, afterwards to succeed to this high office and a churchman from birth to burial, we're attendants and communicants here. Edward Biddle prevented from attending to his duties in the Congress of 1776 by his failing health, was both a churchman and a frequent attendant here. Robert Morris the "Signer," the brother-in-law of the junior assistant minister of the united parish, William White,- " the financier of the Revolution ; "-Thomas Willing his partner in business, and ever furthering from his vast fortune the patriot cause ; Goldsborough, Hall and Paca churchmen and patriots from Maryland ; Bland, Harrison, Patrick Henry, Pendleton, Nelson, Braxton and the Lees from Virginia, all churchmen, vestrymen, and devoted to the cause of popular freedom, worshipped here. From this
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Church, Joseph Hewes of North Carolina, a convert to to the Church from Quakerism and a Signer of the Decla- ration, was buried one chill November day in 1779 by William White. George Wythe, Chancellor of Virginia, a "Signer," attended here. It was of Wythe, a Vir- ginia churchman and vestryman, that Jefferson wrote that " he left to the world the conclusion, that that religion must be good which could produce a life of such exemplary virtue." The Rutledges and Pinckneys, Haywards and Lynches of South Carolina, Button Gwinnett, George Walton, Archibald Bullock, John Houston, " Signers " or members of the Congress of 1776 were churchmen and frequent worshippers here and at St. Peter's. George Tay- lor, a "Signer," and the son of a clergyman of the Church of Ireland, it is said, found here his spiritual home. Philip Livingston, a "Signer," James Duane, John Alsop, Lewis Morris a "Signer" and Henry Wisner of the New York delegation to the Congress of 1776, were worshippers in this venerable house of God. The entire delegation to this Congress from New York save two, all but two of the Pennsylvania delegation, all but one of the Delaware dele- gation, all but one (Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Roman Catholic) of Maryland, all from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, all but one from Georgia, were churchmen and frequented this church, sat in the pews of this House of God, knelt at this altar and united here from time to time in the words of our Common Prayer. Clymer, Rush and the great jurist, James Wilson, friend of Bishop White, (father of White's biographer, the saintly Bird Wilson, D.D., Professor of the General Theological Seminary), were atten- dants and communicants here. Those whom we have named, and Henry Laurens of South Carolina and Cyrus Griffin of Virginia, both Presidents of Congress as well
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Jos. Hophenson
Author of the National Hy.nn, " Hail Columbia."
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as that venerable Virginia churchman, Peyton Randolph, were worshippers here. These, the patriotic leaders we have named, were members of our own beloved Church. Besides them we may name as at least occa- sional attendants within these sacred walls, the Adamses, Hancock, Sherman, Ellsworth, Floyd, Langdon, Whipple, Williams, Stockton, Hart, McKean and Witherspoon.
The Puritans of New England, to whom the Church's prayers were strange, if not abhorrent, were fired by the patriotic preacher's eloquence. The Quaker deputies were here, distinguished from their brother patriots solely by their well-known sombre garb. The Presbyterians from the middle colonies again and again came here to worship and to listen to words of patriotic counsel. The soldiers, impatient for the appeal to arms, were here. The citizens, on whom were to fall the heavy burdens of years of strife ; the wives, the mothers, the maidens, who more than any would feel these burdens and sink beneath their awful weight, were here. Ah, it was a gathering on that " awful day " long to be remembered. It was an epoch in the country's history. It was the consecration in this " house of the Lord God of our fathers," on this " holy ground," of all classes and conditions of men, to the cause of civil and ecclesiastical freedom.
Events now moved rapidly. The Rev. Thomas Coombe, assistant minister of the united churches, shortly followed the rector, Duché, with a like impassioned discourse, which as delivered from the pulpit and as issued from the press, attracted universal attention.
To this church, and borne along its aisles by his fellow- statesmen and patriots, the Hon. Peyton Randolph, first President of the Continental Congress, was carried for burial. Soon, amidst the tolling of the bells, and with the
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sad accompaniments of tears and sobs and all the show of heartfelt grief, the dead of battle were brought within yon doors and placed before this chancel gate for love's last offices. Soon, on the eventful 4th of July, Rector Duché and Warden Thomas Cuthbert, with Vestrymen Jacob Duche, Robert Whyte, Charles Stedman, Edmund Physick, James Biddle, Peter DeHaven, James Reynolds and Ger- adus Clarkson, met in consultation and accommodated the daily offices of the Book of Common Prayer to the act that very morning consummated by the Congress in Inde- pendence Hall. And thus this venerable parish was the first, by the action of its constituted authorities, in the revision of the liturgy, to recognize the freedom of the Church from foreign rule, as involved in the freedom of the State. Soon, on the cooling of Duché's patriotism and the with- drawal of the rector and the senior assistant Coombe, the patriot William White became the head of this patriotic congregation. Soon Mercer, brought in state from Prince- ton's fatal field, was buried from this church. Here, with- in these walls solemn fasts were observed on Thursday, April 3, 1777 and again on December 9th, 1779, on the recommendation of Congress. Here ministered alone for three eventful years of the war, and during the darkest period of the American cause, the saintly William White.
Dating from that sunny day, the 8th day of July, 1776, when brave John Nixon, a sturdy churchman and patriot, read from the State House steps the Declaration of Inde- pendence, the gift to liberty and the world of a body two- thirds of which were members of our beloved Church, there were again and again solemn services of humiliation and prayer ; sad burials where the dead were mourned for their services, civil or military, to the infant United States ; sacraments whence the patriot believer went forth to death ;
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and now and then thanksgivings for victory presaging the speeding end of all this travail and sorrow.
On the feast of St. John the Evangelist, December 28th, 1778, the celebrated Dr. William Smith, at a service held in this church, at which the commander-in- chief of our armies was present, referred to him as the Cincinnatus of America, voicing then and there for the first time in public, it is believed, the idea that nearly five years later took shape in the organization of the Society of the Cincinnati. But time fails me to tell the story-the historian of this venerable fane will with loving detail re- cord the same-of the many incidents worthy of mention in the recital of the connection between Christ Church and the Revolution.
Three signers of the Declaration of Independence were pewholders of Christ Church-Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris and Francis Hopkinson. Three others were connected with the united parishes-Dr. Benjamin Rush, George Clymer, and till his death, Joseph Hewes. Commodore Richard Dale, whose loud responses in the ser- vice are not yet forgotten ; General Jacob Morgan and James Irvine, as well as General Mercer, to whom we have re- ferred, were buried in the Christ Church grounds. For six years our Washington was a regular worshipper here.
Thus from first to last this noble pile has been a centre of patriotic impulses and sacred associations, linking its name, its very being, with the country's history. Christ Church shares with old Faneuil Hall, (the gift of a churchman to Boston's patriots), the proud distinction of being a cradle of the country itself as it is a cradle of the American Episcopal Church. It is thus that this hallowed fane, where we meet to worship God and to glorify Him for the gift to us of our freedom through the willing sacrifices,
Pulpit of 1770 and Episcopal Chair.
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the self-denying toil of our sires, is dedicated to God and our native land. We see here the crosses, but they were not signed on walls or foundation stones by a bishop's holy hand. Here are the sacred oils, fragrant yet with the old-time offering to God and our country, of life and treasure, of toil and loving service on the part of patriots and Christians, freemen in Christ whom the truth made free. Ah, this is surely holy, hallowed ground !
The associations of this temple of the Most High are sacred for all time. Yonder pew, where "that incompar- able man," " that unblemished gentleman," our Washing- ton, sat ; yonder tablets on the walls, telling of life freely given for liberty ; yonder vaults, where the mouldering remains of patriots, sages and soldiers lie ; yonder flag- stones, on which have trod the feet of those who, in the halls of the Continental Congress or on the battlefields of many a hardfought fight secured our liberty ; and these aisles and galleries where, in those days which " tried men's souls," the people gathered to listen to the lessons of duty from the lips of patriot priests, or knelt, in the words of our common prayer, to ask for God's blessing on the appeal to heaven our fathers made-these are the signs of a true, a lasting consecration.
Thus was this venerable fane dedicated to God, to liberty and to our native land. Let, then, each fragment of this house of the Lord God of our fathers be ever held in high and holy honor. Here let successive generations gather to learn the lessons taught by these very stones, of the worth of liberty protected by law. Here may the rep- resentatives, in these days of ours, of our honored fathers- children of the officers who, with and under Washington won our freedom, members of the Society of the Cincin- nati, founded by the great American Cincinnatus himself-
The Erben Organ.
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meet, year after year, to recall the past and inspire for the present and future a like devotion to liberty, a like true and unselfish patriotism.
Hither may the sons, the daughters of the Revolution, sons of the sires, daughters of the fathers of our freedom, come with like patriotic purposes, and find here the altar on which to swear undying fealty to our fathers' principles and to the liberty they labored and died to secure. Here, too, may the sons of strangers come and learn from these walls, eloquent of the past, and in this house of the Lord God of our fathers, kept sacred for all time to come, the American idea ; freedom from alien rule :- freedom, civil and religious ; freedom to do all that is true and right and wise.
Thus shall this holy ground be ever kept sacred. Offer- ings for its preservation, its adornment, its perpetual endowment should be given as an act of willing devotion. This sacred pile is a memorial to God, to the Church, to the nation. The christian, the churchman, the patriot are alike interested in its perpetuation for all time to come. The loving gifts of all should here be offered up, to make this church a lasting monument. Here in this house of the Lord God of our fathers, generations yet to come shall learn the underlying and eternal principle of our American patriotism, devotion to God and our native land *
*A number of members of the Society of the Cincinnati, and of the Sons of the Revolution were present at the services, and in the family pew of Bishop White, the first bishop, and pastor of the church after the Declaration of Independence, just in front of the Washington pew, were a great grand daughter and a great grandson of that distinguished divine and patriot. Portions of this discourse were omitted at the time of its delivery for want of time.
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A Nook.
Church Endowment.
An effort is making to adequately endow Christ Church. Spiritual usefulness and the preservation of this historic church are concerned in the result ; as city changes have left the church far "down town." The Vestry has undertaken to raise $200,000, and desires to complete this really needed work by the bi-centennial of the church, which occurs in 1895. Gifts (memorial or other- wise) are earnestly requested for this important object. Amounts may be subscribed, payable at dates to suit convenience. For information, address the Accounting Warden, Christ Church, North Second Street, corner of Church Street, Philadelphia.
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For persons wishing to make provision for this object by will, the legal forms of bequest are as follows :
BEQUEST OF PERSONAL PROPERTY.
I give and bequeath to the Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church, in the city of Philadel- phia, the sum of dollars.
DEVISE OF REAL ESTATE.
I give and devise to the Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church, in the city of Philadelphia, their successors and assigns forever, all that certain, etc.
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" The history of Christ Church is a part not only of the history of the diocese and of the Church at large, but also of the nation ; every consideration of patriotism as well as of piety, of reverence for the past as well as of hope for the future, and of thankfulness for the rich heritage which has come down to us in the Church, as well as of obligation to all those for whom the Master died, commends the raising of this endowment."- Bishop Whitaker, Annual Ad- dress, 1892.
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