The Legacy of Jeremiah Evarts Charles A. Maxfield

"Am greatly disturbed and mortified, for our country's from 1821-Evartshad visited theboard's missions to the Chero­ sake,"1 jeremiah Evarts noted in his journal on April kee and neighboring nations several times and was an advocate 28, 1830, when he received word that the Senate for the peoples with whom his worked. Now hav­ had passed theIndianBill,requiringtheremovalof the ing to seriously contemplate the removal of the Cherokee, he from their homeland in to territory west of the Missis­ mourned, "The evil falls generally on the innocent, or those who sippi River. Evarts's public relations campaign and Washington are least deserving of ill."? lobbying in opposition to Cherokee removal was the greatest of Evarts the social reformer saw that most of the votes in the many crusades he fought in his lifetime; it was now evident Congress against the Cherokee had come from slave-holding that he had failed. states. He had observed slavery on his southern trips, had All of the divergent pieces of Evarts's life-Christian, law­ editorialized strongly against the system, and now identified a yer, journalist, executive, and social reformer-had link between slavery and : "Without that disre­ come together in his campaign against Indian removal. A com­ gard of human rights which is to be found among slave-holders mitted Christian since his senior year at in 1802, only, nothing could have been done against the Indians.:" Evarts was now in 1830 troubled by how God could allow this to Jeremiah Evarts fought the fight of his life for the Cherokee happen to the Indians. He reflected, "It seems as if Providence and for national honor. He kept on fighting after the Senate's was at war with the Indians; and that very little success is likely adverse vote, but not for long. He died of consumption on May to attend efforts made in their behalf. The Lord will vindicate his 10, 1831, in Charleston, , while returning from a own plan; though many of his doings are inscrutable to US."2 recuperative trip to Cuba. He was fifty years old. Younger men Educated to be a lawyer, Evarts effectively used his legal with different sensitivities took his place as leaders of America's skills through the decade of the 1820s to present the Cherokee's first and largest foreign mission board and led it in different case to the general public, to plead their cause before the power­ directions. ful in Washington, and to indirectly advise the Cherokee leaders Although Evarts failed in the greatest struggle of his career, in their ongoing struggle. But it was of no use, he complained in his legacy of influence in missionary activity and church life for 1830, for the elected officials in Washington were "mere ma­ succeedinggenerations was great. Anyexamination of therole of chines, instead of men, and worthless demagogues, instead of advocacy and political action in church and missionary society reflecting, responsible statesmeu/" should begin with the precedents provided by Evarts. Discus­ A successful journalist, Evarts had been hired by Jedidiah sions of the equality of the races and sexes in church and mission­ Morse in 1810 to edit the Panoplist, a monthly journal advocating ary society should take note of his attitudes and actions. His Calvinistic orthodoxy; he edited the journal for a decade. Evarts contributions to religious journalism, missionary organization, used his journalistic skill in 1829, when, using the pen name of and popular attitudes to the stewardship of money are also William Penn, he wrote a series of articles for the National significant. Intelligencer explaining the legal and moral case for the Cherokee From New England Farm to Yale "How tame and timid, how Jeremiah Evarts was born February 3, 1781, in Sunderland, . His family soon moved to Georgia, Vermont, where he compromising, are even the grew up on a farm. A classmate recalled his appearance on his religious people on political first day of class at Yale College in 1798: "There sat Evarts, in a plain rustic garb, with which fashion evidently had never inter­ issues involving moral and meddled; his stature of the middlingheight; his form remarkably religious considerations." slender; his manners stiff; and his whole exterior having nothing to prepossess a stranger in his behalf, except a countenance which bespoke as much honesty as ever falls to the lot of man."? nation. But he evidently was not persuasive enough. He de­ The "rustic garb" was later replaced by a business suit, but the plored, "How tame and timid, and how vacillating and incon­ appearance and character of Evarts otherwise remained un­ stant-how yielding and compromising-nine-tenths of even changed throughout his life. the religious people are on all political questions which involve Evarts married a widow, Mrs. Mehitabel Barnes, in Septem­ moral and religious considerations."! ber 1804. She was a daughter of , an active As a missionary executive-corresponding secretary of the Connecticut politician and a signer of the Declaration of Inde­ AmericanBoard ofCommissionersfor ForeignMissions (ABCFM) pendence. When in 1810 a group of Andover Seminary students met with faculty and clergy to discuss their dream of becoming Charles A. Maxfield is a local church pastorin the United Church of Christ foreign missionaries, Evarts was there." In 1811 he became trea­ (USA). He is a graduate of Lancaster Theological Seminaryand Union Theo­ surer of the ABCFM, America's first foreign mission board, and logical Seminaryin Virginia.Thisarticleistakenfromhisdoctoral dissertation, a member of its governing Prudential Committee; in 1821 he approved in 1995, "The 'Reflex Influence' of Missions: The Domestic Opera­ tions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1810­ became corresponding secretary. 1850." Evarts was a transitional figure between the older genera­

172 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH tion of American Board founders and the younger generation of the first missionaries. At the time of the ordination of the first The advantages of communicating the English language has missionaries in 1812, thirty-one-year-old Evarts was closerin age always been a favorite and familiar topic with us; yet experience to those receiving the laying on of hands than he was to those has proved to our full conviction, that it is a more di~ficultthing to bestowing it. However, he shared with the older generation one teach English, even to the children, than we had at first s,:pposed; and that it is wise for some of the persons at every mIssIonary important trait. Like Samuel Worcester, Leonard Woods, and establishment, to learn the language spoken by the Indians at that Samuel Spring, Evarts had broad interests in a~ almost e~dl~ss place. This is useful on every account; but especially as the list of causes. He was an active organizer and writer for Christian medium of communicating divine truth to the minds of the adult tract societies. He had a variety of roles in the organizing of Bible population.... There is abundant, proof ... that the word o~ God, societies, a temperance society, and societies to educate persons brought home to the mind of an Indian, is capable of producing an for ministry, reform prisons, care for seamen, establish Sunday entire moral change; and this change operates with more power in Schools, promote Sabbath observance, and so fort~. ~e. p.ro­ promotingcivilization, thanall othercauses whatever....Schools, moted all of these causes in the Panoplist, as well as editorializing farms, and shops are good auxiliaries; and without them a good against war, slavery, and other vices. state of society cannot exist. ... But all these things will not civilize Evarts and his elders saw the missionary movement as a a single tribe, ifmade to occupy the principal place. At least, such are the results of our reasoning and experience." very important element of a larger movement for.the renovation of society. With Jonathan Edwards, they believed that the millenniaI reign of Christ would come as individuals allowed A Passion for Justice and Equality Christ to reign in their hearts and as Christ worked through such Jeremiah Evarts's greatest legacy was his passion for justice, founded on a belief in human equality. He saw in all persons, regardless of color, "immortal beings, for who~ Christ died.:'13 Evarts believed the Evarts identified with the aspirations of the native peoples WIth millennium would come as whom the ABCFM worked and advocated their cause through the media and before the political establishment of his country. individuals allowed Christ This passion for justice for native peoples was demonstrated in to reign in their hearts. his conduct in the "Percival Affair" and in the battle over Chero­ kee removal. OnJanuary 14, 1826, the U.S. Dolphin,underthe command of Lieutenant John "Mad Jack" Percival, arrived at Honolulu. people throughout the wider community. As Tin:othy Dwight Percival demanded the suspension of a law the Hawaiian chiefs had put it, the kingdom would come, "not by miracles, but by had recently enacted against prostitution and threatened the life means:" The homes for widows and orphansfounded by Isabella of missionary I-liram Bingham if he should try t~ interfere. ?n Graham and Sarah Ralston, as well as the work of Thomas February 26, "six or seven sailors from the Dolphin,armed WIth Gallaudet with the deaf and dumb, were all part of this kingdom clubs," entered the room of an ailing Hawaiian chief, and "de­ building. The founders of America's foreign missions were not manded that the law should be repealed." More sailors arrived, promotingan exclusively "spiritual" Gospel. They sa~ the worl~­ a riot began,andtheymoved to the missionaryresidence. Bingham wide proclamation of the Gospel as the central pIece of their "fell into the hands of the rioters, by several of whom he was kingdom-building work, and they believed that spiritual trans­ seized, some of them holding a club over him in the attitude of formation was the foundation of social renovation. Evarts never striking." At this pointthe natives intervened, enabling Bingham lost interest in the entirety of this progran1 of building the to escape." After continued intimidation, the chiefs let i.t be kingdom of God on earth. known that the law against prostitution would not be strictly By contrast, the students who were the real foun~ers of enforced. Several other ships at Lahaina bullied the authorities American missions had committed their lives to the most Impor­ there into a similar relaxation of the law. tant of all causes, foreign missions. Among them was Rufus Jeremiah Evarts was outraged. He began a media campaign, Anderson, who had made his commitment as a member of the using the Missionary Herald (successor to the Panoplist, now secret student society at Andover called The Brethren. For such owned by the ABCFM) and encouraging friendly articles and students there might be other worthy causes, but world evange­ letters in other periodicals. He was confident that "every man is lization was the most important. Evarts's successors as corre­ justly held amenable to the great law of public ?pinion."15 A~ a spondingsecretary were from this generati?n, ~nd they involved result of a formal complaint made by the ABCFM Prudential themselves in few other benevolent organizations. Committee to the Navy Department, a court of inquiry was held. Evarts also followed a transitional mission policy. Prior to The decision of the court was never made public; the board his secretariat, the American Board was working to make the assumed that Percival received a reprimand." The United States Indians "English in their language, civilized in their manners, sent to Hawaii the U.S. Vincennes, arriving at Honolulu on and Christian in their religion."!" Evarts's successors, however, October 14, 1829, with gifts and apologies to the Hawaiian proclaimed that the board "is, pre-emine~tly, a s~ciety for preach­ government, and a letter from President John QUinc~ Adams ing thegospel. This is its primary and leading des~gn-thegrand that declared, "Our citizens who violate your laws, or Interfere object for which it exists. All its plans have an ultimate reference with your regulations, violate at the same time their duty to their to the preaching of the gospel."!' . own government and country, and merit censure and punish­ Evarts moved the board in this direction for pragmatIc ment."l? reasons. He decentralized missions, increased use of the native The election of to the presidency in 1828 languages, and reduced civilizing activity. Evarts explained this brought newenergy to efforts to remove the Che.rokee fro~ th:ir policy shift in an 1826 reply to a letter from a supporter who homeland in Georgia. The Prudential Committee, while dIS- criticized the changes:

October 1998 173 claiming any desire to get entangled in politics, sent Evarts to school for natives of "heathen" lands. The marriage of Elias Washington in January 1829 to urge the federal government to Boudinot, a Cherokee student at the school, to Harriet Gold, a follow a just and humane policy. The committee directed Evarts local girl (the second such interracial marriage at Cornwall), led to express "as the decided opinion of the Board, that the Indians to the open expression of racist feelings in the community. should notbe solicited, much less compelled to leave their lands, Horrified, Evarts wrote to a board member from Connecticut, except upon terms fully explained, well understood, and volun­ "Can it be pretended, at this age of the world, that a small tarily accepted; and that any other course of proceeding would variance of complexion is to present an insuperable barrier to be repugnant to the plainest principles of justice, violate the matrimonial connexions? or that the different tribes of menare to express stipulations of treaties, and would bring reproach upon be kept forever and entirely distinct?"?' His strong feelings were the character of our country.r'" not made public. But in private Evarts defended the marriage Evarts had made similar trips in 1823, 1824, 1827, and 1828, against the opposition of the community and the school's agents. and would go again in 1830.19 In addition to his "William Penn" Afterward, he called for an investigation of the school, and it was letters, he held public meetings in major cities and organized closed in 1826. The board claimed the school was closed because petition campaigns in the winter of 1829-30 to urge Congress to it was no longer needed. honor its treaties with the Indians. The network of supporters Evarts was a strong believer in the power of "public opin­ that sustained the American Board with ll10ney and prayers was ion," and he used his journalistic skills to effectively mobilize also enlisted to petition-and pray for-Congress. that opinion. However, he apparently used discretion when he Evarts wasmotivated in this controversybya concernfor the realized that public opinion was not in harmony with his views; Cherokee and also a concern for "national honor." He wrote, he continued to act according to his convictions but selectively refrained from publicizing unpopular actions. Itwill be an indelible stigma Organizational Development if "in plenitude of power and Evarts's legacy also included the development of the internal pride of superiority we shall structure of missionary organizations. He once commented, "If weare to be the instruments of doinganythingworthmentionfor beguiltyofinjusticeto weak the church of God and the poor heathen, we must exhibit some and defenceless neighbors." of that enterprise which is observable in the conduct of worldly men.?" The board under Evarts adopted new fund-raising poli­ cies that had been pioneered in Britain. In November 1823 the "The character of our government, and of our country, may be board announced a plan to cover the country with regional deeply involved. Most certainly an indelible stigma will be fixed "auxiliary societies," which would have oversight of local"asso­ upon us, if, in the plenitude of our power, and in the pride of our ciations," two in every parish, one for men and one for women. superiority, we shall be guilty of manifest injustice to our weak The association members, as "collectors," were to canvass their and defenceless neighbors.'?" communities for subscriptions to foreign missions." In January Evarts advised missionariesSamuelA. Worcesterand Elizur 1831 the Prudential Committee voted to obtain "permanent Butler not to comply with Georgia's demand that they leave agents" to work full-time to promote missions and gather funds Cherokee territory. This policy, pursued after Evarts's death, led in specific areas. This pattern of associations, auxiliaries, and to their arrest and imprisonment in 1831 and a Supreme Court agents was followed by many other missionary and benevolent decision in their favor the following year (which President societies throughout the nineteenth century. By 1830 Evarts was Jackson refused to enforce). administering an enterprise with annual receipts in excess of Following the failure of the effort to prevent Cherokee $100,000;27 the ABCFM was fast becoming a big business, and removal, many persons who first became politically involved in Evarts worked to give it a life that was both businesslike and that cause shifted their concern to the abolition of slavery." pious. However, the new generation of American Board leadership To fund missions, the American Board promoted a piety of treated the abolitionist movement as an annoying distraction the consecration of material possessions, the precursor of our from their one "great object." modern"stewardship" theory. Throughthepagesof thePanoplist, Two other incidents demonstrate Evarts's pursuit of his editor Evarts promoted the values of stewardship, total dedica­ convictions regarding human equality. These are the mission of tion to Jesus Christ, and self-denialfor the causeof Christ."In this Betsey Stockton to Hawaii and the marriage of Elias Boudinot to way he participated in laying the foundations of modern atti­ Harriet Gold. Evarts believed that men and women are equal­ tudes to church and mission financing. certainly equal in mental abilities-though having separate Jeremiah Evarts was never a "single-issue" person. Most spheres of activity." Under Evarts's leadership, the first woman notable among his other activities were (1) important reviews in listed as an "assistant missionary" by the American Board, Ellen the Panoplist exposing Unitarians and defending Trinitarian Stetson, went to an Indian mission in 1821, and the first woman orthodoxy, and (2) lobbying in Washington on behalf of those reported as an overseas assistant missionary, Cynthia Farrar, opposed to the delivery of mail on Sundays. All of his activities went to Bombay in 1827. However, in 1822 Betsey Stockton, an were shaped by a postmillennial effort to make this world more Afro-American former slave, was sent to Hawaii, where she like the promised kingdom of God. taught school for several years. The board did not report her as Although some of Evarts's policies were reversed by his an assistant missionary; however, the other missionaries were successors, and in other ways he was a transitional figure between directed to treat her as an equal once their ship left port.23 the two generations that pioneered America's foreign missions, he The second illustration took place in the rural community of also contributed a distinctive legacy that is still with us. Cornwall, Connecticut, where the American Board conducted a 1. He identified the cause of missions with the legitimate aspira­

174 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH tions of the native peoples to whom missionaries were sent, 6. As a journalist who became a mission executive, he believed advocating their cause within his own country. in the importance of public opinion and effectively used the 2. He believed in racial equality in the conduct of missions. media to mold that opinion. 3. He opened the door to missionary service by single women. 7. Evarts advocated a missionary piety among mission support­ 4. As a result of the Percival Affair, the condition of women in ers that included a consecrated use of material possessions. other societies became a steadily increasing theme in the Jeremiah Evarts played an important role in the evolution of promotion of missions. foreign missions from the dream of a handful of students who 5. Evarts believed that Americans must be held accountable for met in secret for fear of being called fanatics, to a business their actions among vulnerable peoples and pursued this enterprise that stood at the center of the religious establishment principle to the point of taking political action. in America. Notes------­ 1. Ebenezer Carter Tracy, Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. 19. E. Tracy, Memoir of Evarts, pp. 129, 188, 190,267-75,304-8,319-29, (Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1845), p. 366. 353-67. 2. Ibid., p. 367. 20. Jeremiah Evarts, Cherokee Removal: The uWilliam Penn" Essays and 3. Ibid. Other Writings, ed. Francis Paul Prucha (Knoxville: Univ. of Tennes­ 4. Ibid. see Press, 1981), p. 49. 5. Ibid. 21. Linda K. Kerber, "The Abolitionist Perception of the Indian," Journal 6. Ibid. of AmericanHistory 62 (1975): 274; Milton C. Sernett, Abolition'sAxe: 7. Ibid., p. 11. Beriah Green, Oneida Institute, and the Black Freedom Struggle (Syra­ 8. According to E. Tracy, Evarts was in Andover, talking to the people cuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Univ. Press, 1986), p. 22. who attended the meeting, but not in actual attendance (Memoirof 22. John A. Andrew III, From Revivals to Removal: Jeremiah Evarts, the Evarts, p. 96). However, Rufus Anderson says that he was present Cherokee Nation, and the Search for the Soul of America(Athens: Univ. and spokestronglyin favor of the project (RufusAnderson,Memorial of Georgia Press, 1992), p. 16. VolumeoftheFirstFifty YearsoftheAmericanBoard ofCommissioners for 23. John A. Andrew III, "Betsey Stockton: Stranger in a Strange Land," Foreign Missions [Boston: ABCFM, 1861], p. 52). Journal of Presbyterian History 52 (1974): 157-66. 9. Timothy Dwight, A Sermon Delivered in Boston,Sept. 16,1813, Before 24. Quoted in E. Tracy, MemoirofEvarts,p. 223. For more on the Foreign theAmericanBoard ofCommissioners forForeign Missions,at theirFourth Mission School and its closing, see John A. Andrew III, "Educating Annual Meeting, 2d ed. (Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1813), p. 20. the Heathen: The Foreign Mission School Controversy and Ameri­ 10. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, First Ten can Ideals," Journal of American Studies 12 (1978): 331-42; Carolyn Reportsof the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Thomas Foreman, "The Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Con­ with OtherDocumentsoftheBoard, p. 160.Thesewerethe wordsof Ard necticut," Chronicles of Oklahoma 7 (1929): 242-59. Hoyt, missionary, reported in the annual report for 1817. Samuel 25. Letter dated March 31, 1815, quoted in E. Tracy, Memoirof Evarts,p. Worcester, first corresponding secretary of the board, also favored 107. the use of English. See Samuel Worcester to Jeremiah Evarts, July I, 26. "Systematic Charity," Missionary Herald 19 (1823): 367. 1815, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Pa­ 27. AR 1830, pp. 103-4. pers, Houghton Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts, sere 1.5, vol. 2. 28. It is difficult to determine which of the numerous pseudonymous 11. [Benjamin B. Wisner, Rufus Anderson, and David Greene], "The and anonymous articles in the Panoplist were by Evarts. However, General Objects of the Board Stated," American Board of Commis­ Evarts was in charge of editorial policy, and at least the following sioners for ForeignMissions, Annual Reports (hereafter AR) 1833, p. articles addressing charitable giving were probably by him: "For­ 139. See also AR 1832, p. 165; AR 1836, p. 113. eign Missions," n.s., 4 [71] (1811-12): 445-48; "Address to the Chris­ 12. E. Tracy, Memoir of Evarts, pp. 250-51. tian Public: November, 1812," n.s., 5 [8] (1812-13): 249-56; "On 13. [Jeremiah Evarts], "On the Condition of Blacks in This Country," Covetousness, or a Reliance upon Riches for Happiness," 9 (1813): Panoplist 16 (1820): 489. 258-63; "Address to the Christian Public: October, 1813," 9 (1813): 14. AR 1827, p. 79. 315-28; "On Religious Charities," 10 (1814):224-27; "Address to the 15. Ibid., p. 77. Public at the Commencement of a New Year," 11 (1815): 1-6; "An­ 16. AR 1828,pp. 60-62; JosephTracy, HistoryoftheAmericanCommission­ swer to a Letter from the Secretary of a Female Cent Society," 12 ers for Foreign Missions, 2d ed. (New York: M. W. Dodd, 1842), pp. (1816): 256-60; "Address to the Public at the Commencement of a 226-27. New Year," 13 (1817): 1-7; "On the Deceitfulness of Riches," 14 17. J. Tracy, History, p. 226. (1818):546-50; "Avarice of Professed Christians," 15 (1819):529-31; 18. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Prudential "On Being Stewards of God," 15 (1819): 539-42. Committee, Minutes, vol. 2, pp. 187-88, Congregational Library, Boston, microfilm. Bibliography Selected Works by Jeremiah Evarts 1828. "AmericanMissionariesat the SandwichIslands." NorthAmeri­ The papers of Jeremiah Evarts are among the American Board of Com­ can Review 26 (January): 59-111. missioners for Foreign Missions Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard 1981. [William Penn, pseud.]. Cherokee Removal: The uWilliamPenn" University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Evarts Family Papers are in Essays and Other Writings. Edited by Francis Paul Prucha. the Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press. 1810-20.. Panoplisi, vols. 6-16. As editor, Evarts wrote a majority of the articles and most of the reviews. 1812. "Address to the Christian Public: November, 1812." ABCFM. Major Works on Jeremiah Evarts Annual Report, pp. 29-36; widely reprinted. Andrew, John A., III. From Revivals to Removal: Jeremiah Evarts, the 1821-30. Annual reports of the American Board of Commissioners for Cherokee Nation,andtheSearch fortheSoulofAmerica. Athens: Univ. Foreign Missions. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. Evarts edited of Georgia Press, 1992. the material and wrote the conclusions, some of which were Tracy, Ebenezer Carter. Memoirof the LifeofJeremiah Evarts,Esq. Boston: afterward published as tracts. Crocker & Brewster, 1845.

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