DOCSLIB.ORG

The Language of the Clergy: Religious and Political Discourse in Revolutionary America, 1754-1783

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Language of the Clergy: Religious and Political Discourse in Revolutionary America, 1754-1783 W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2000 The Language of the Clergy: Religious and Political Discourse in Revolutionary America, 1754-1783 Cristine E. Maglieri College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Maglieri, Cristine E., "The Language of the Clergy: Religious and Political Discourse in Revolutionary America, 1754-1783" (2000). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626265. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-vbyq-k788 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE LANGUAGE OF THE CLERGY RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA, 1754-1783 A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Cristine E. Maglieri 2000 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts C aju ^ H j YV j6- * 0 . Cristine E. Maglieri Approved, December 2000 Christopher Grasso oL-, A x^ju James Axtell Lu Ann Hom za^ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.....................................................................................................iv LIST OF TABLES.................................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................................vi ABSTRACT................................... vii INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER I: SIGNS OF JUDGMENT ........................................... 10 CHAPTER II: VISIONS OF GLORY ................................................................................. 34 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................61 BIBLIOGRAPHY 64 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My interest in religion and the American Revolution first began at Hamilton College in Douglas Ambrose’s seminar on revolutionary America. By exposing me to fresh ideas and the power of sermons, Professor Ambrose kindled the curiosity that led me to undergraduate and graduate theses on this topic. He and so many Hamilton professors continue to be a source of strength for my intellectual and personal growth. Words cannot express my gratitude for all their support. At the College of William and Mary, my graduate professors also have provided invaluable guidance and support. I want to thank Professor James Axtell for his keen editorial comments in all of my writing and Professor Lu Ann Homza for her insightful suggestions on this thesis. I especially wish to thank Professor Christopher Grasso for his patience and support and for his unwavering interest in my research. Throughout my struggle with the material, he helped me sort through and appreciate the complexities of the subject matter. The strengths of the final product are due largely to the sharp insights he provided on countless drafts. Lastly, I owe all that I am and all I hope to become to my family and friends. They never ceased believing in me and always reminded me that I had a life outside of the sermons. LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. The Strange and Wonderful Prophecies of Mr. Christopher Love 24 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The Mitred Minuet ABSTRACT By analyzing approximately sixty political sermons from 1755 to 1783 (twenty- five sermons from 1773 to 1783), this study examines how clergymen applied religious ideas to understand temporal events and how those interpretations changed over time. In the early part of the Seven Years’ War, many clergymen focused on God’s judgment on the colonists for their sins. Ministers delivered jeremiad sermons to warn the colonists about possible destruction of the local community, the nation, or the world. By defining themselves against their French enemies during the Seven Years’ War, many clergymen fostered a dynamic and reciprocal relationship between religion and politics. As victory against the French ushered in conflict with Britain, many ministers drew on the conceptual tools that guided them during the 1750s to address the imperial crisis and to share a similar vision of America’s future glory. With their eyes toward independence, patriotic clergymen grounded religious rhetoric in historical experience to make the transition from colonies to nation. Yet in doing so, they did not apply a rigid scriptural formula. As a whole, the clergy held sometimes vastly different interpretations of the relationship between civil and spiritual liberty and modified their sermons to address each new circumstance. Analyzing the religious and political rhetoric in the sermons illuminates how the ministers’ eschatological interpretations of God’s spiritual enemies changed as the colonists moved from resistance to revolution. THE LANGUAGE OF THE CLERGY: RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA, 1754-1783 2 INTRODUCTION Connections between religion and the American Revolution are murky. Although recognizing that religious ideas were important for most people in the revolutionary era to understand their changing world, many historians disagree about the importance that these ideas had in the Revolution. Some contend that religious ideology had no “unique political role” and regard religion as secondary to radical whig ideology. In contrast, other historians elevate religion and its influence on revolutionary thought. These historians do not dismiss the importance of secular republican ideas but maintain that religion illuminates “how many Americans understood the ultimate meaning of the revolutionary crisis and birth of the American nation.”1 Below the surface of these historiographical debates lay deeper questions about what the terms Revolution and religion mean. Many scholars who analyze religion’s role in revolutionary America narrow their focus to an isolated series of events that they define as “the Revolution.” For some, the Revolution extends back to the 1730s and the religious revivals of the Great Awakening. Others emphasize the interplay between religious and political language during the Seven Years’ War or the Episcopacy controversy. In addition, many historians also have confined “religion” to the religious 3 discourse in the sermons and have focused on one theme, like millennialism or civil millennialism, covenant theology, revivalism, or the jeremiad.2 Yet such a narrow focus has glossed over the complexities of religious discourse and the complex relationship between religion and other discourse in revolutionary America. Many historians have focused on the sermons of the patriot clergymen because these ministers were speaking and writing about the war more than anyone else—they were responsible for 190 publications, approximately 80 percent of the politically relevant pamphlets, dealing with the state of public affairs between 1774 and 1784. But in an effort to understand religion’s relationship to the political ideology in revolutionary America, scholars have made too many generalizations and too many unsubstantiated assumptions. Reading the sermons as if they represent a consensus in the beliefs of the general population, some historians have neglected the fact that the published sermons were written primarily by elite New Englanders. By extracting a single theme (such as millennialism or covenant theology) from eighteenth-century preaching and presenting it as the key to revolutionary ideology, some also have reduced the sermons to a simplistic formula and the patriot clergymen to a unified mind.3 1 Bernard Bailyn, “Religion and Revolution: Three Biographical Studies,”Perspectives in American History 4(1970): 83-165, quote on page 85; Ruth H. Bloch,Visionary Republic: Millennial Themes in American Thought, 1756-1800 (New York, 1985), xii. 2 On millennialism, see Bloch, Visionary Republic, Nathan O. Hatch, The Sacred Cause o f Liberty: Republican Thought and the Millennium in Revolutionary New (New England Haven, 1977), and Earnest Tuveson,Redeemer Nation: The Idea o f America’s Millennial Role (Chicago, 1968). Harry S. Stout focuses on the covenant theology,New see England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England (New York, 1986). For the importance of the jeremiad, see Sacvan Bercovitch,The American Jeremiad (Madison, Wise.: 1978). 3 Statistical information on the number of sermons published are Melvin B. Endy, Jr., “Just War, Holy War, and Millennialism in Revolutionary America,”William and Mary Quarterly, 42 (1985), 3-25,10 n.15 and Ellis Sandoz, ed. Political Sermons o f the American Founding Era, 4 Before understanding how these sermons affected the mentality of the general population or political ideology, it is necessary to unearth the complexities and variations of the themes in these political sermons. Appreciating the richness of the sermons will allow historians to compare them to political pamphlets and other documents to determine
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Annual Report of the Town of Pittsfield, New Hampshire
    Jtiamp 52.07 68 ANNUAL REPORTS of the Town of PITTSFIELD New Hampshire 1979 PITTSFIELD'S TOWN HALL For the year ending December 31, 1979 University o) Urn Hampshire THE PITTSFIELD TOWN HALL On June 30, 1782 the town voted to locate the meeting house on the land of John Cram. At a 2nd meeting on January 6, 1783, it was voted to build the meeting house along the lines of the Hampton Falls structure by public subscription. On February 3, 1783 the town voted to add two feet to the forty-two foot width of the building. Then, on April 2, 1881, a special town meeting voted to add a 3rd story under a Mansard roof (also called General Grant or 2nd Empire style) for $300.00. In 1979 the town spent $13,455.00 to install siding, insulation of the first two floors, storm windows and new front and side steps. Historic preservation experts have termed the town hall as "beautiful as is" and "worthy to preserve with all its detail." (photo credit — David A. Dame) ANNUAL REPORTS of the Town Officers PITTSFIELD NEW HAMPSHIRE For the year ending December 31, 1979 CITIZENS OF THE YEAR Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Dame Printed by Photos by PITTSFIELD PRINTING D A DAME PHOTOGRAPHY INDEX Auditor's Report 18 Balance Sheet 17 Budget of the Town of Pittsfield 8 Comparative Statement of Appropriations & Expenditures 16 Detailed Expenditures 23 Fire Department Report 30 Inventory of Town 13 Library Report 36 Municipal Court Report 38 Police Report 32 Recreation Commission Report 30 Report of Municipal Services Division — Dept.
    [Show full text]
  • April 2020 Villager
    THE VILLAGER MISSION STATEMENT To fully inform the residents of the Village at Calabash of all activities and issues related to the good and welfare of the community to maintain fairness and impartiality in all reporting. To this end, no personal or political editorializing will be published, as well as anything derogatory or inflammatory. The Villager Printed copies funding provided by the Village at Calabash P.O.A. Massachusetts. Menotomy was on the Concord Road between Lexington and Concord and Boston While the fighting was going on in Lexington and Concord, 5,100 militia men arrived in Menotomy from April showers will not bring May Flowers this Middlesex and Essex Counties. These men year! “APRIL FOOL’S” To bad it didn’t apply took up positions along the road the British to this virus menace we are all dealing with. troops would take on their retreat to Boston. REMEMBER to follow all the They placed themselves in and around protocols with the virus houses, stone walls, fields and barns. The mandates from the local and bloodiest fighting of the first day of the American Revolution took place inside a Federal governments. Check single house, the Jason Russell House, in your email for any changes that Menotomy. Eleven militia men died in this may occur, as to when and if house fighting British troops trained in events will resume. bayonet fighting. Patriots' Day was first proclaimed in Massachusetts in 1894 by Gov. Special days and holiday’s this month are of Greenhalge replacing Fast Day as a public course April fool’s day on the 1st, Passover holiday.
    [Show full text]
  • Testing the Elite: Yale College in the Revolutionary Era, 1740-1815
    St. John's University St. John's Scholar Theses and Dissertations 2021 TESTING THE ELITE: YALE COLLEGE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA, 1740-1815 David Andrew Wilock Saint John's University, Jamaica New York Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations Recommended Citation Wilock, David Andrew, "TESTING THE ELITE: YALE COLLEGE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA, 1740-1815" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 255. https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations/255 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by St. John's Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of St. John's Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TESTING THE ELITE: YALE COLLEGE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA, 1740- 1815 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY to the faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY of ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES at ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY New York by David A. Wilock Date Submitted ____________ Date Approved________ ____________ ________________ David Wilock Timothy Milford, Ph.D. © Copyright by David A. Wilock 2021 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT TESTING THE ELITE: YALE COLLEGE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA, 1740- 1815 David A. Wilock It is the goal of this dissertation to investigate the institution of Yale College and those who called it home during the Revolutionary Period in America. In so doing, it is hoped that this study will inform a much larger debate about the very nature of the American Revolution itself. The role of various rectors and presidents will be considered, as well as those who worked for the institution and those who studied there.
    [Show full text]
  • Portland Daily Press: April 21,1888
    1 ~ _--__.1_ tjTOMfflB PRICK THREE CENTS. SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 21, ;D JUNE 23, I8GL--V0I, 26. PORTLAND, MAINE, 1888._ operation was much to the sur- in which the latter came RELEASE successful, A WPM**'HUUEH. northeast of propriation bills, EMPEROR FREDERICK DESIRES and satisfaction of Mr. Bachelder and nnrKLLANKOKN. farm in tlie part Farmington, FUNERAL OF EX-SENATOR CONKLING. General debate having oeen prise •TICE*. SWEPT AWAY BY THE FLAMES. out victorious. his friends. Dr. Baxter successfully re- recently purchased by Charles H. IJavis ol its consideration by para dispersed with, moved the splinter and will save the sight of burned last A crew was entered upon in Edward Chase Deliberately Shoots New Hampshire, night. graphs immediately Conflicting Reports of the Condition the eye. The operation was one of the most Impressive Ceremonies Conducted committee of the whole. Every Store In Monmouth Centre of men were chopping wood on the farm and Ruler. delicate ever performed here and has created Ida M. Stevens, on a verbal amend- of the Stricken Dr. Dix in Trinity Chapel. Mr. Boutelle, speaking considerable comment.” •ST, Burned to the Cround. had quarters in the house. It is supposed by of the bill and ment,!criticised tne provision Dr. Baxter is a son of Ur. William U. that built a lire when came the fact that states iT RELIABLE they up big they j commented on represent- Baxter of And Then Hla Own on rivers Which Insult the Em- Deering. Attempts to Take out of the woods at night. The loss is about Persons and : ed by members of the committee Newspapers Many Distinguished : of Life.
    [Show full text]
  • Bits of Harvard History
    This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com 1 و هب dan @@ CUBBERLEY LIBRARY JUNKC COLD STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 1 1 BITS OF HARVARD HISTORY LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OPENING SCENE OF “ THE REBELLIAD ” ( See page 144 ) BITS OF HARVARD HISTORY BY SAMUEL F. BATCHELDER VERI TAS CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1924 COPYRIGHT , 1924 BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Second Impression PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE , MABS . , 0.8 . A. TO THE CLASS OF 1893 “ THE BEST CLASS THAT EVER GRADUATED FROM HARVARD COLLEGE ” Concerning the material here collected , the two military articles first appeared in the “ Harvard Graduates ' Maga zine . ” Of the legal articles , the sketch of Professor Lang dell was written for the “ Green Bag " ; and the history of the Law School has been elaborated from a paper read be fore the Choate Club of the School , and subsequently pub lished in the “ Atlantic Monthly . ” The medical paper , an extract from an extended essay on the medical conditions of 1775 , was read before the Harvard Medical Society and afterwards printed in the “ Harvard Alumni Bulletin . " The architectural paper ( first read before the Harvard Me morial Society ) , and the remaining articles in this volume , likewise appeared in the “ Bulletin . ” Acknowledgments are due the editors of the above publications for courteous permission to reprint . 1 7 CONTENTS I. THE SINGULAR STORY OF HOLDEN CHAPEL 1 II . THE STUDENT IN ARMS OLD STYLE 35 III .
    [Show full text]
  • Conversion and Revolution in New England Throughout the Fall Of
    Introduction: Conversion and Revolution in New England Throughout the Fall of 1765, Stephen Johnson, the pastor of the church in Lyme, Connecticut, excoriated Britain’s Parliament for the Stamp Act and recent trade regulations. Such “evils” imposed on “two millions of free people,” he warned in a series of newspaper editorials, threatened to “destroy the good affections and confidence” between Parliament, King, and America.1 In December, he preached a fast-day sermon (an occasion called by the colony for corporate lamentation) that elucidated the meaning of disrupted “affections.” The “present crisis,” he admitted, was “perplexing and exercising” because it compelled American colonists to make a choice between loyalty to Britain and their “great, provincial, continental, or national purposes.” He put it boldly: “if there be left to the colonies but this single, this dreadful alternative,--slavery or independency,--they will not want time to deliberate which to choose.” Johnson reiterated the need for moral deliberation. As he argued in his newspaper pieces, the “liberty of free inquiry is one of the first and most fundamental [liberties] of a free people.” New Englanders ought to be prepared to determine their political allegiances. Johnson repeated his provocation as a simple question: “what shall we do?”2 This question implied more than the possibility of resistance to parliamentary regulation. It hinted at independence from the British empire. Johnson asked his parishioners, the people of Connecticut, and all Americans to imagine a complete transformation of political loyalties, a renunciation of their status as subjects of the English monarchy. He contended that they had the moral capacity to change their allegiances.
    [Show full text]
  • Image Credits__
    BECOMING AMERICAN: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763 PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTION Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763 __Image Credits__ AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. Worcester, Massachusetts. WEBSITE Images in AAS collections retrieved in digital collection, Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800, American Antiquarian Society in collaboration with Readex, a division of NewsBank. Items in chronological order. Reproduced by permission. Francis Makemie, A Narrative of a New and Unusual American Imprisonment of Two Presbyterian Ministers . , 1707, title page. #1300. Cotton Mather, Theopolis Americana, 1710, title page. #1469. Cotton Mather, A Man of Reason, 1718, title page, details. #1976. Benjamin Colman, Some Observations on the New Method of Receiving the Small Pox by Ingrafting or Inoculating, 1721, title page. #2211. William Cooper, A Letter to a Friend in the Country, Attempting a Solution of the Scruples . against the New Way of Receiving the Small Pox, 1721, title page. #2247. Jeremiah Dummer, A Defence of the New-England Charters, 1721, title page. #2216. Cotton Mather, Some Account of What Is Said of Innoculating or Transplanting the Small Pox, 1721, title page. #2206. John Williams, An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intitled A Letter to a Friend in the Country . , 1722, title page. #2407. Benjamin Colman, God Deals with Us as Rational Creatures, 1723, title page, detail. #2421. James Allin, Thunder and Earthquake, A Loud and Awful Call to Reformation, 1727, title page, detail. #2833. Cotton Mather, The Terror of the Lord. Some Account of the Earthquake That Shook New- England . , 1727, title page, detail. #2919. Thomas Prince, Earthquakes the Works of God, and Tokens of His Just Displeasure, 1727 (1755 reprint), title page, detail.
    [Show full text]
  • Whose Rebellion? Reformed Resistance Theory in America: Part II Sarah Morgan Smith
    Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Department of History, Department of History, Politics, and International Politics, and International Studies Studies 4-2018 Whose Rebellion? Reformed Resistance Theory in America: Part II Sarah Morgan Smith Mark David Hall George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/hist_fac Part of the Political Science Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Sarah Morgan and Hall, Mark David, "Whose Rebellion? Reformed Resistance Theory in America: Part II" (2018). Faculty Publications - Department of History, Politics, and International Studies. 84. https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/hist_fac/84 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History, Politics, and International Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Department of History, Politics, and International Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. u SARAH MORGAN SMITH AND MA.RK DAVID HAll Abstract Students of the American Founding routinely assert that America's civic leaders were influenced by secular Lockean political ideas, especially on the question of resistance to tyrannical authority. In the first part of this series, we showed that virtually all Reformed writers, from Calvin to the end of the Glorious Revolution, agreed that tyrants could be actively resisted. The only debated question was who could resist thern. In this essay, we contend that the Reformed approach to active resistance had an important influence on how America's Founders responded to perceived tyrannical actions by Parliament and the Crown.
    [Show full text]
  • War and Constitution-Making in Revolutionary Massachusetts, 1754-1788 James Fred Hrdlicka Garfield Heights, Ohio B.A. University
    War and Constitution-Making in Revolutionary Massachusetts, 1754-1788 James Fred Hrdlicka Garfield Heights, Ohio B.A. University of Notre Dame, 2010 M.A. University of Virginia, 2012 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia August 2016 Abstract Throughout the Revolutionary era, Americans embraced the capacity of constitutional government at all levels to mobilize power to achieve desired ends. This study explores how and why the inhabitants of one province-turned-state looked to the institutions, practices, and authority of constitutional government to address the myriad challenges they faced between the French and Indian War and the ratification of the United States Constitution. In these years, people in Massachusetts viewed constitutions as more than sets of theoretical propositions designed to limit the power of those who ruled, and they appreciated them not only because they provided opportunities to declare inviolable rights. Constitutions also comprised practical plans of government through which the populace could effectively mobilize power during times of greatest strain. War and its burdens thus formed the essential backdrop as inhabitants considered what made for legitimate and effective government. In no other context did government demand so much of them; at no other times were they presented with as many opportunities to consider the nature of their attachments to the state and to each other. This study properly situates the narrative of constitutional development by first examining the process by which authorities worked with the populace to mobilize men and resources for war and the specific contexts of governance in which that process occurred.
    [Show full text]
  • A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers: with Some Reflections on the Resistance Made Ot King Charles I
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Electronic Texts in American Studies Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1750 A Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission and Non- Resistance to the Higher Powers: With some Reflections on the Resistance made to King Charles I. And on the Anniversary of his Death: In which the Mysterious Doctrine of that Prince's Saintship and Martyrdom is Unriddled (1750). An Online Electronic Text Edition. Jonathan Mayhew A.M., D.D. West (Congregational) Church, Boston Paul Royster , Editor & Depositor University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas Part of the American Studies Commons Mayhew, Jonathan A.M., D.D. and Royster, Paul , Editor & Depositor, "A Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers: With some Reflections on the Resistance made ot King Charles I. And on the Anniversary of his Death: In which the Mysterious Doctrine of that Prince's Saintship and Martyrdom is Unriddled (1750). An Online Electronic Text Edition." (1750). Electronic Texts in American Studies. 44. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/44 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Texts in American Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. JONATHAN MAYHEW (1720–1766)
    [Show full text]
  • View of John Winthrop's Career As a Scientist, to Mention the Copy of Euclid, Cambridge, 1655, Which Had Been Used in College Successively by Penn Townsend (A.B
    Some Books of Early New England Provenance in the 1823 Library of Alleghany College BY EDWIN WOLF, 2ND N 1823, appealing to the Germans of Pennsylvania for I funds to establish a Professorship in German Literature, Timothy Alden, the president of Alleghany College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, stated: "The Library, a most useful and indispensable appendage to any such institution, through the munificence of Winthrop, Bentley, Thomas, and many other benefactors, comprising books in thirty different languages, is the first, except one, as to the excel- lence of the selection and in point of value, belonging to any collegiate institution in the United States."' The Catalogus Bibliothecae Collegii Alleghaniensis, compiled by Alden and printed at Meadville in 1823, confirms the amazing state- ment that at the end of the first quarter of the 19th century a library existed not far from Lake Erie in quality surpassed only by that of Harvard College as an "appendage" to a teaching institution. It is probably also correct to say that among non-teaching institutions only the Library Company of Philadelphia and Jefferson's collection at the Library of Congress were better. It is surprising that for well over a century so important an aggregation of books has been so little known. Searching for books from Franklin's library, I stumbled upon it. To my amazement it produced, not books from Franklin's ' Timothy Alden, A Letter addressed to the Germans of Pennsylvania [Meadville, 1823], 8. I have used the original spelling of Alleghany throughout; after 1833 it was changed to Allegheny. 14 AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY [April, library, but a wealth of New England provenance.
    [Show full text]
  • Samuel Cooper's Old Sermons and New Enemies: Popery And
    Note: I provide this essay only as background. My panel talk will summarize Protestant Constitutionalism more generally and also argue for its contemporary relevance. Please contact me with questions: [email protected] Samuel Cooper’s Old Sermons and New Enemies: Popery and Protestant Constitutionalism GLENN A. MOOTS ABSTRACT This article reinterprets the role of Protestantism in the American Revolution by examining the unpublished sermon manuscripts of Boston Congregationalist minister Samuel Cooper. Even as late as 1775, Protestant ministers like Cooper identified Protestantism withlibertyandRomanCatholicismwithtyranny.Butthesesameministerseagerlyallied with Catholic France against Protestant Britain in the Revolution. Cooper even redeployed colonial war sermons against his new British foes in the Revolution. The shifting loyalty of ministers like Cooper cannot be explained by mere expediency or secularization of the political elite. Rather, the explanation lies in the evolving nature of transatlantic Protestant constitutionalism—the ongoing association of Protestantism with liberty and the rule of law—over 2 centuries. On March 15, 1775, off-duty British soldiers and Loyalists held a mock town meeting outside the British Coffee House in Boston. They played their opponents to type and concluded with a costumed mock oration performed by Loyalist surgeon Dr. Thomas Bolton. Publication of Bolton’s oration followed, probably printed by a Loyalist printer outside of Boston. Not coincidentally, March 15 also saw the publication of an oration delivered just 9 days earlier— that year’s official annual oration commemorating the Boston Massacre delivered by Dr. Joseph Warren (Akers 1976, 23–25). The roster of commemorative orators since 1771 was a “who’s who” of Patriot leaders: John Hancock, Glenn A.
    [Show full text]