Elisha Mulford(1833-85)
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Elisha Mulford(1833-85) and His Influence: A "Fame Not Equal To His Deserts"? UESTS AT A commemorative dinner for Elisha Mulford held on December 1, 1900 were reminded of the fragile nature of G literary reputation by a disagreement between Mulford's friends T.T. Munger and H.E. Scudder. Sara Winlock (nee Mul- ford) wrote to her mother: Mr Munger told about his early life. .and then about his books—he said at the end that his books did not sell now as they did and he doubted if 100 years from now they [sic] would be more than one sold—but no matter Father would never be forgotten. Mr Scudder got up then and said he was sorry to differ with Mr Munger but Father's books sold just as well now as they ever had since the first flush and would always sell even 100 years from now. .* In fact, Munger was right and Scudder wrong; today the name of Elisha Mulford is hardly known. Some standard histories of American thought mention him, especially as the author of The Nation (1870).2 #I am grateful to the staff of the Manuscript Room of the Sterling Library at Yale University, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the Library of the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass., for assistance and permission to publish from their holdings; to the American Council of Learned Societies for a fellowship which helped to make this and other projects possible; to the University of Canterbury for a research grant which made possible the purchase of books necessary for this and other researches, and to Professors Robert T. Handy (Union Theological Seminary) and William R. Hutchison (Harvard University) for their advice. Neither of them is responsible for any remaining errors of fact or interpretation. References have been checked as far as this is possible at some distance from many of the sources consulted. 1 Sara C. Winlock to Rachel P. Mulford, Dec. 23, 1900. Munger could not attend the dinner but his remarks were read to the guests. Unless otherwise indicated all references to MSS are to materials in the Mulford Family Collection at Yale University. 2 See, e.g., M. Curti, The Growth of American Thought (New York, 1964, 3rd ed.), 469; H.W. Schneider, A History of American Philosophy (New York, 1963, 2nd ed.), 168-75;C.E. Merriam, American Political Ideas; studies in the development of American Political Thought (New York, 1970), 373 and H. Kohn, American Nationalism; an interpretative essay (New York, 1957), 126. 26 COLIN BROWN January Studies of the religious trends of the period commonly refer to Mulford in passing or in general terms. C.H. Hopkins, discussing the influ- ences from which the Social Gospel derived some of its momentum, includes what he calls "the internal dynamics of progressive Protes- tantism." He sees as especially important the movement's protest against the "excessive individualism of orthodoxy" and its avowedly ethical interpretation of dogma and of Christianity generally. Among exponents of "progressive Protestantism" he includes Mulford along with Horace Bushnell, T.T. Munger, and Newman Smyth.3 F.W. Buckham refers only once to Mulford, listing him among those who should be discussed in any "complete account of the progress of American theology."4 Surprisingly, a review of Mulford's life and influence has not been attempted since obituaries were published.5 In his own day Mulford was regarded as of importance, especially by some closely associated with what has been called "Christocentric Liberalism." In addition to T.T. Munger, influential as an early popularizer of Protestant liber- alism, A. V.G. Allen, a notable Episcopalian liberal was a close associate from late 1880 on when Mulford settled in Cambridge, Massachu- setts.6 Mulford's The Republic of God: An Institute of Theology was published in 1881: Munger's important essay on the "New Theology" appeared in 1883 in his book The Freedom of Faith.1 Considering the 3 The Rtse of the S octal GospeimAmertcan Protestantism 1865-1915 (New Haven, 1940), 61 4 Progresstve Religious Thought in America, a survey of the enlarging Ptlgrtm Faith (Boston, 1919), 290 None of the modern histories of the Protestant Episcopal Church (Manross, Addison, and Albright) mention Mulford 5 I have omitted consideration of Mulford's place in the development of American political theory For this see Mark E Neely, Jr , "The Organic Theory of the State in America 1838-1918, "Ph D diss , (Yale University, 1973), and his article "Romanticism, Nationalism and the New Economics Elisha Mulford and the Organic State," American Quarterly, XXIX (Fall, 1977), 403-21 I am glad to acknowledge Dr Neely's help 6 Both Munger and Allen provided assessments of Mulford's work, Munger in "The Works of Elisha Mulford", The Century Magazine, 13 (1887-8), 888-95, and Allen in a memorial sermon (MS in the library of the Episcopal Divinity School, Camb , Mass ), an extract from which appeared in the Christian Union, March 11, 1886, 8-9 In the Princeton Review, 9 (1882-3), Allen reviewed The Republic of God in the second part of an article entitled "The Theological Renaissance of the Nineteenth Century " 7 F H Foster, The Modern Movement in American Theology, sketches in the history of American Protestant Thought from the Civil War to the World War (New York, 1939), 61, selects 1877 as the beginning of the liberalising movement Foster calls Munger's The Freedom of Faith "the maturest and best exposition of the movement so far as it had then proceeded " 1984 ELISHA MULFORD (1833-85) AND HIS INFLUENCE 27 importance of Protestant liberalism and the Social Gospel in American history, a reassessment of Mulford's role in the development of American theological thought in the late nineteenth century is war- ranted. Mulford, born in Montrose, Pa., in 1833 where his father had a general store, was raised an orthodox Congregationalist. With some intervals he spent the years 1846-52 at the Cortland Academy then under the rule of a relative, the Rev. Dr. J.B. Woolworth.8 Letters from this period speak of predictable interests: the charms as well as the religious welfare of certain young ladies, his own religious concerns; and perhaps some sort of conversion experience.9 He entered Yale in 1852, graduated B.A. in 1855, and, subsequently M.A. and LL.D. The prevailing Protestant orthodoxy seems to have begun to lose its hold over him during his time at Yale. Mulford was always inclined to be the victim of moods and surroundings but he does seem to have chafed more or less continuously under the yoke of the educational methods then in vogue at Yale. On his contemporaries he left an im- pression of literary brilliance, wide culture, distaste for his teachers' methods, and relative indifference to their demands.10 Added to this are some signs of specifically religious unease. On Nov. 4, 1852, his cousin H.H. Jessup wrote about Mulford: 8 Information supplied by the Librarian of the Phillips Free Library, Homer, N.Y. 9 H.H. Jessup toT.T. Munger, June 2, 1852, Munger Papers, Yale University; Mulford to F.B. Carpenter, April 7, 1852. The letters to Carpenter are typewritten copies only. Another clue to these early years is that the class obituary for S. B. Mulford (one of Elisha Mulford's older brothers) refers to Montrose as "a small country town, isolated and controlled at the time by an intense but illiterate Puritan dogmatism." This language may owe something to a desire to defend S.B. Mulford who seems to have reacted against Montrose and the family circle there. 10 See especially the obituary for Mulford in the report of the Yale class of 1855 for 1889; Mulford's remarks on education in his address on the 20th annual festival of Susquehanna County; his letter to Munger (July 7, 1871) on Porter's election as President of Yale: "I so thoroughly detest the cumbersome, useless, ill-constructed system wh I was subject to; its system of marks, formed after Paley's notion of the world and man, its rigid uniform course," and his paper, "The Object of a University," Atlantic Monthly, 58 (1886), 747-61. 28 COLIN BROWN January I am glad to have favourable reports from my cousin Elisha. Encourage him to keep an "eye to the Lord Jesus," for he is beset with trying diffi- culties. I do not allude to any one thing in particular, but the almost ir- resistible tendency in college to spiritual decline.ir On Jan. 19, 1853, Mulford complained to F.B. Carpenter of a "dry doctrinal sermon" from Dr. Taylor, presumably Nathaniel Taylor, noted for his "New School" theology. On Nov. 21 of the same year Mulford read Tennyson's In Memoriam "chiefly to gather some hints as to certain theological doubts." The obituary in the 1889 report of the class of 1855 notes that: "with some consent, I think the class knew that he would not be what he started for, an orthodox Congregational minister." The dissolution of earlier beliefs continued after college; on March 29, 1856, Mulford wrote to W.T. Wilson: More than you I fancy, I this winter have been alone. It has been a solitude amid doubts and darkness, it has been the solitary struggle with uncer- tainties that oh! too often bring perplexity to the reason and remorse to the conscience. It would be pleasant indeed to go back to the simple faith of childhood—to live again in its calm twilight. But that sweet dream is broken. It will never come again.12 For about a year after graduation he lived at home absorbed in the study of law and literature.