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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bressler, Ann Lee. The Universalist movement in America, 1770–1880 / Ann Lee Bressler. p. cm. — (Religion in America series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-512986-5 1. Universalist churches—United States—History—18th century. 2. United States—Church history—18th century. 3. Universalism—History—18th century. 4. Universalist churches—United States—History—19th century. 5. United States—Church history—19th century. 6. Universalism—History—19th century. I. Title. II. Religion in America series (Oxford University Press) BX9933.B74 2000 289.l'73—dc21 99-058071 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Molly, Morgan, and Robin Acknowledgments My academic work on the Universalist movement was sparked by study of its pio- neering women, Olympia Brown and Mary Livermore, during my first years as a graduate student. But I will have to admit that my interest has deep roots in a personal concern with soteriological and eschatological issues, a concern already in evidence when I was eleven or twelve, struggling with basic questions in a church confirmation class. It now seems natural that my historical research on Universalist women should have expanded into an examination of a movement that was based on the denial of hell and the assertion of universal salvation. This study first took shape as a dissertation at the University of Virginia under the direction of Joseph Kett, who appreciated that American historians had largely bypassed the Universalists, and who also wisely prompted me to broaden the scope of the work. Robert Cross and Ira Brown kindly reviewed manuscript drafts. Joseph Conforti commented on several chapters. Ernest Cassara shared many discussions with me about the Universalists. Russell Snapp has listened patiently and percep- tively as I have tried to articulate my historical understanding. All these scholars have been more helpful to me than they realize. Alan Seaburg, curator of manuscripts at the Andover-Harvard Divinity School Library, guided me through the extensive collection of Universalist documents kept there. I have also made frequent use of the resources of the Pattee Library at my alma mater, Penn State. I am grateful to Leland Park, director of the E. H. Little Library at Davidson College, one of the best small-college libraries in the country, viii Acknowledgments for many courtesies, large and small. His staff has been ever supportive; in particular, Joe Gutekanst went out of his way to locate obscure materials for me. My parents always fully shared my interests in history and religion; they were a constant source of encouragement and support. My mother, Marion Bressler, a distinguished teacher of Advanced Placement American history, has been an in- spiring model of the excitement that historical study can bring. My late father, Leo Bressler, a former professor of English at Penn State, gladly entertained my early musings on American religion and lent his skillful writer’s hand to help me polish awkward prose. My editors at Oxford University Press have been patient and instruc- tive as I have navigated the publication process. My husband Robin Barnes has long shared my enthusiasm about the Univer- salists and has been my invaluable partner in this work. Beyond our countless in- formal and lively discussions, he has consistently devoted his time and talents to help me clarify concepts and edit drafts. Over the years he has come to know Hosea Ballou and Thomas Whittemore as well as I do. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to him. Our children, Molly and Morgan, have grown up with this book. Almost every summer they have endured trips to historic Universalist sites and New England graveyards. The names and teachings of nineteenth-century Universalists must be lodged somewhere deep in their minds. As I complete this work, that is not an unhappy thought. Davidson, North Carolina A. L. B. January 2001 Contents Introduction 3 ONE Calvinism Improved 9 TWO The Challenge of Communal Piety 31 THREE Controversy and Identity 54 FOUR Universal Redemption and Social Reform 77 FIVE Universalism and Spiritual Science 97 SIX Winning the Battle, Losing the War 126 Conclusion 147 Notes 151 Index 197 The Universalist Movement in America 1770–1880 Introduction n 1805, a thirty-four-year-old preacher unknown outside scattered church circles Iin New England published A Treatise on Atonement. Written some three and a half decades after John Murray had begun to spread the notion of universal salvation in America, the work was a straightforward and lively exposition of Universalist faith. His widely read Treatise established Hosea Ballou as the foremost theologian of a popular religious movement that was just then experiencing a rapid shift from re- liance on itinerant preachers to the establishment of settled congregations. Some fourteen years later, William Ellery Channing, the pastor of an elite con- gregation in Boston, delivered a sermon at the Baltimore ordination of Jared Sparks that became “the chief manifesto of American Unitarianism.”1 Outlining the major elements of the liberal faith that had grown up within Boston’s Standing Order, Channing sought to explain Unitarian principles to a new audience. His willingness to state forthrightly the precepts of “Unitarian Christianity” confirmed him as the “prime embodiment” of the Unitarian movement.2 These key exponents of two branches of early nineteenth-century religious lib- eralism were, by 1817, the pastors of large, closely neighboring Boston churches. Channing was at the famous Federal Street Church, one of the oldest and most highly regarded congregations in the city. After an early career of itinerant preaching and brief ministries in Portsmouth and Salem, Ballou had become pastor at the fast-growing Second Universalist Society, only a few corners away on School Street. One might easily assume that the two men were acquainted and that they spoke to 3 4 The Universalist Movement in America, 1770–1880 one another about the many common themes of their writings. But this was not the case. Indeed, when Ballou moved to Boston, he was extended no ministerial courtesies or fellowship; it was reported that Channing, by then an eminent figure, treated him as though he were a leper.3 Channing’s most sympathetic biographer can find no real explanation for his “infuriating practice of treating Ballou as if he did not exist.”4 Differences of social class surely played a role: the Harvard-trained son of a well- connected Newport family had little time for the self-taught minister of an undis- tinguished congregation. Ballou clearly felt this distance. In a commentary on one of Channing’s discourses, he wrote that he did not “expect” Channing to “conde- scend” or “explain himself on the subject” any further.5 Living, as his biographer observed, “amidst the embellishments and comforts of dowered wealth,” Channing could show a striking lack of awareness about those not of his station, asserting in an 1833 sermon that “the poor are often over-worked, but they suffer less than many among the rich, who have no work to do, no interesting objects to fill up life..