Religion and Politics in the Early Republic: Jasper Adams and the Church-State Debate
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge United States History History 1996 Religion and Politics in the Early Republic: Jasper Adams and the Church-State Debate Daniel Dreisbach American University Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Dreisbach, Daniel, "Religion and Politics in the Early Republic: Jasper Adams and the Church-State Debate" (1996). United States History. 116. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_united_states_history/116 RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC Jasper Adams and the Church-State Debate DANIEL L. DREISBACH EDITOR THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Frontispiece: Portrait of Jasper Adams, courtesy of the Archives, Warren Hunting Smith Library, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York 14456. The editor gratefully acknowledges permission to publish material in the archives of the William L. Clements Library. A brief excerpt from the Introduction first appeared, in slightly different form, in Liberty 90, no. 4 (July/August 1995): 16-19, and is reprinted by permission. Copyright © 1996 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Religion and politics in the early republic : Jasper Adams and the church-state debate / Daniel L. Dreisbach, editor, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8131-1950-2 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 0-8131-0880-2 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Church and state—United States. 2. Adams, J. (Jasper), 1793-1841. Relation of Christianity to civil government in the United States. 3. Christianity and politics. 4. Church and state —United States—Sermons. 5. Episcopal Church—Sermons. I. Dreisbach, Daniel L II. Adams, J. (Jasper), 1793-1841. Relation of Christianity to civil government in the United States. BR516.R346 1996 322'.l'097309034-dc20 95-37861 For Joyce and Mollie Abigail CONTENTS ix T OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi E xvii S ON THE TEXTS 1 : A Debate on Religion and Politics in the Early Republic 37 T ONE. Sermon 39 The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States, 2d ed. (1833), by Jasper Adams 59 Adams's Sermon Notes 105 Works Cited by Adams 111 PART TWO. Response 113 Letters to the Reverend Jasper Adams 123 Review Essay: "Immunity of Religion" 151 : Reflections on the Church-State Debate 163 X ONE. The Life and Works of Jasper Adams 168 X TWO. Obituary of the Reverend Jasper Adams, D.D. from the Pendleton Messenger, 12 November 1841 170 X THREE. The Sermon, Delivered at Pendleton, by the Rector of Christ Church, Greenville, on the Occasion of the Death of the Rev. Jasper Adams, D.D. 177 X FOUR. The Publication and Distribution of Adams's Sermon 192 D BIBLIOGRAPHY 208 X ILLUSTRATIONS ii The Reverend Jasper Adams. Frontispiece 38 Title page of The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States, 2d ed. (1833), by Jasper Adams 114 John Marshall 116 Joseph Story 119 James Madison 169 The grave of the Reverend Jasper Adams 171 The Reverend Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 178 A page of Jasper Adams's list of recipients PREFACE <,(. A page of history," Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes opined, "is worth a JTx. volume of logic."1 Thus, jurists and scholars have consistently turned to the pages of history to inform their interpretations of the constitutional provisions governing relations between religion and civil government. James Madison agreed that any discussion of church and state was appropriately and profitably illuminated by history. "[O]n this question," he wrote, "ex- perience will be an admitted umpire."2 The U.S. Supreme Court has long relied on history, especially the dramatic disestablishment struggle in revo- lutionary Virginia, to guide its interpretation of the First Amendment pro- visions concerning religion.3 As Justice Wiley Rutledge observed: "No provision of the Constitution is more closely tied to or given content by its generating history than the religious clause of the First Amendment. It is at once the refined product and the terse summation of that history."4 A sermon preached at St. Michael's Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on 13 February 1833 by the Reverend Jasper Adams provides valu- able insight into the historical understanding of the First Amendment reli- gion provisions and the social and intellectual forces that shaped church-state relations in the early republic. In an address before a convention of the South Carolina Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Adams argued that the Christian religion is an indispensable support for civil government, es- sential to social order and stability. A published version of the sermon, en- titled The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States (1833), was distributed widely across the country. This was among the first major works controverting Thomas Jefferson's vision of a secular polity and abso- lute church-state separation. Although Adams's remarkably prescient dis- course is noteworthy in its own right, its principal importance lies in the exchange of ideas it promulgated. Eager to confirm his interpretation of American church-state doctrine, Adams circulated his pamphlet among scores of leading intellectuals and public figures of the day. Letters written in response to Adams's sermon provide a vivid portrait of early nineteenth- century thought on the constitutional role of religion in American politics and public life. xii PREFACE This book for the first time brings together Adams's sermon, a critical review of the sermon published anonymously in 1835, and complete and reliable transcripts of letters written in 1833 in response to the sermon by John Marshall, Joseph Story, James Madison, and John Smythe Richardson. These previously unpublished letters are of particular importance, since Madison is generally credited with drafting the First Amendment religion provisions, and Chief Justice Marshall and Associate Justice Story were eminent jurists whose legal opinions during their distinguished careers on the Supreme Court illuminated the meaning of the federal Constitution. Richardson was a respected and influential South Carolina judge who, at Adams's request, supplied his opinion on technical legal matters addressed in the sermon. During the colonial and early national periods, ministers often preached ser- mons addressing the nature of divine intervention in the life of the nation. Religion, it was frequently argued, was an essential component of social har- mony, civic virtue, and good government. Among the compilations of politi- cal sermons of this era are the edited collections ofJohn Wingate Thornton, TTte Pulpit of the American Revolution (1860); Frank Moore, The Patriot Preach- ers of the American Revolution, 1766-1783 (1860); and Ellis Sandoz, Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805 (1991). Other excellent an- thologies contain important political sermons, including the first volume of Bernard Bailyn's edited collection, Pamphlets of the American Revolution, 1750- 1776 (1965); and Charles S. Hyneman and Donald S. Lutz's two-volume edition of'American Political Writing during the Founding Era, 1760-1805 (1983). Political sermons and similar writings of the era have also been the subjects of a rich library of secondary works. The literature reveals that a vibrant religious culture influenced the early republic and its institutions. It is difficult to overestimate the power of the pulpit in molding public opin- ion, shaping cultural values, and building social and political institutions. A selected bibliography of outstanding scholarship on the role of religion in the late colonial, revolutionary, and early national periods is provided at the end of this book. Although Adams's sermon is the product of a later generation, its spirit and tone are very much in the tradition of the political sermons of the found- ing period. Moreover, it is principally concerned with the design and goals of the founders in creating a new arrangement for church-state relations. The sermon was written in the age of Andrew Jackson, but it focuses on the founding era. Adams's sermon and the responses to it confirm that the relationship be- tween religion and civil government was the subject of lively debate in the PREFACE xiii early republic. The material compiled here has been arranged to emphasize the content and intensity of that debate. An introductory essay seeks to place the sermon and the attendant discussion within a historical and intellectual context. This sets the stage for Adams's sermon, the centerpiece of the vol- ume. The sermon and Adams's notes are accompanied by a bibliography of the major works cited by Adams. This is followed by letters written in re- sponse to the sermon and an unsigned review published in an 1835 edition of the American Quarterly Review. The review essay celebrates thejeffersonian vision of a secular polity and enthusiastically endorses the separation of church and state. Adams's sermon and the review essay illustrate two sharply contrasting interpretations of the constitutional role of religion in Ameri- can public life. The Epilogue reflects briefly on the principal themes of the collected documents and the continuing church-state debate in the United States. Four appendices provide background on the life and work of the Reverend Jasper Adams.