Xerox University Microfilms 74-3230
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Xerox University Microfilms 74-3230 LEH4AN, Neil Burkhart, 1941- THE LIFE OF JOHN MURRAY SPEAR: SPIRITUALISM AND REFORM IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1973 History, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. THE LIFE OP JOHN MURRAY SPEAR: SPIRITUALISM AND REFORM IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Neil B. Lehman, B.A., A.M. ***** The Ohio State University 1973 Reading Committee: Approved By Dr. Merton Dillon Dr. Robert Bremner Dr. Mary Young Dr. W. G. Hac k M 'ID uCC. A d viser Department of History TABLE OP CONTENTS Chapter Page I. SPIRITUALISM AND MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN REFORM ................................ 1 II. THE MAKING OP A REFORMER ....................... 65 III. CONVERSION TO SPIRITUALISM .................... 105 IV. WORLD IMPROVEMENT AND THE WATER CURE.... l42 V. GOD'S LAST, BEST, GIFT TO M A N .................. I69 VI. THE FIRST YEARS OF THE KIANTONE COMMUNITY: 1854-1858.................... .......... 206 VII. THE KIANTONE MOVEMENT: A PROFILE ............ 247 VIII. 1858: BANNER Y E A R .............. 288 IX. NEW HORIZONS ................. 331 X. THE FAILURE OF SPIRITUALIST R E F O R M .......... 379 XI. SPIRITUAL EXPATRIATES ............................ 420 CONCLUSION ................................................. 454 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................... 46l C H A PTER I SPIRITUALISM AND MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN REFORM American historians in the 1960s became increasingly sensitive to the tendency of their predecessors to compart mentalize aspects of the nation's development. In consid ering the history of reform in the United States, they emphasized that the reform impulse which characterized the intellectual and social mood of the nation in the l830s, 40s and 50s did not expire with the firing upon Port Sumter, nor was it spontaneously resurrected when an assassin's bullet thrust Theodore Roosevelt into the White House. Rather, it was argued, the history of reform— to use Emerson's phrase, "the comparison of the idea with the f a c t — has formed an unbroken pattern in the stream of American history, and any attempt to assess its importance • in the historical process must acknowledge the fact.^ ^Works, Riverside ed. (Boston, 1888), I, p. 258 ("Lecture on the Times"). ^Gerald Grob, comments presented at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, April 6, 1972 in a session on the subject "Humanitarianism in Nineteenth- Century America." 2 The evidence which has been amassed illustrating the existence of a wide variety of reform endeavors in the late nineteenth century is great enough that historians should never again allow themselves to simplify the history of that century by portraying it as an "Era of Romantic Reform" juxtaposed against an ensuing "Gilded Age. And yet, while acknowledging the continuity of the reform impulse in American history, there remain certain unique characteris tics which can be observed in the reforms and reformers of the period from 1820 to i860. This uniqueness appears both in the breadth of the reform impulse and also in the bouyant sense of optimism which accompanied it. ^In The Era of Reconstruction (New York, 1965) Kenneth Stampp has stressed the continuity between aboli tionism and post-Civil War Radical Republicanism (pp. 11- 105), and in The Populist Response to Industrial America (Cambridge, Mass., 1962) Norman Pollack argues persuasively that Populism in the late nineteenth century was not a con servative reaction but a well-defined reform effort rising ' out of the injustice which accompanied rapid industriali zation. The urban reform movement of the period is de scribed in detail in Harold U. Faulkner's Politics, Reform, and Expansion: 1890-1900 (New York, 1959) PP• 23-47. There was a very active temperance reform movement between 1865 and 1900 (see Herbert Asbury The Great Illusion [New York, 1950]), and largely neglected but active reform effort on behalf of the American Indian (see William T. Hagan, Ameri can Indians [Chicago, 1961]). The movement on behalf of women's rights continued throughout the period (see Gerda Lerner, The Woman in American History [Menlo Park, Calif., 1971]), 106-164, passim), and recent scholarship is bringing to light evidence of a number of experiments in communi tarian living, for example, John 0. Fish, "Communism in Georgia: The Christian Commonwealth Colony, I896-I900." unpublished manuscript delivered at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, April 8, 1972. 3 The circumstances which encouraged the growth of this general optimism are numerous. English colonists brought with them to North America a tradition of natural rights and human equality. Such beliefs were nurtured by nearly a cen tury of "salutary neglect" on the part of the British, and were ultimately embodied In the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" clause of the Declaration of Indepen dence. Two Important developments which gave significance to the rhetoric of enlightened liberalism were the purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the establishment of absolute control over the Old Northwest as a consequence of the War of 1812. The frontier had from the beginnings of American history encouraged a sense of equality of opportunity (which was often confused with equality of ability), and the guarantee of a seemingly Inexhaustible body of Inexpen sive land convinced Americans that In such an environment the most equitable and democratic of all possible govern- ments might be realized. Furthermore, In such an environ ment social Institutions and humanity Itself could antici pate the achievement of perfection.^ The author's comments regarding the nature of early nineteenth century reform have evolved from reading In a number of studies Including Arthur M. Schleslnger, The American as Reformer (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), Perry Miller, The Life of the Mind In America (New York, I965), "The Evangelical Basis"; Miller, ed.. The Transeendentallsts: An Anthology (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), (cont'd) 4 The effect of the frontier upon the American mind was closely entwined with American religious patterns. It was on the frontier that evangelical religion was most success ful. During the 1820's Charles G. Finney began a long and Illustrious career as an evangelist, preaching a gospel which was In complete harmony with the optimistic political temper of the times. Finney's gospel placed a close rela tionship between salvation and good works. The achievement of Individual perfection would be evidenced by the dedica tion of the believer to the Improvement of the human condi tion. Finney's efforts spawned a large number of reformers (among them the famous mldwestern abolitionist, Theodore Weld), whose goal was the perfection of American Institu tions through the salvation and perfection of the American (cont'd) Wlnthrop S. Hudson, Religion In America (New York, 1965), chapters I-VIII, passim; John L. Thomas, "Romantic Reform In America, I815-I865," American Quarterly, XXII, 4, 1965» pp. 656-68I; and Alice Felt Tyler, Freedom's Ferment; Phases of American Social History from the Colonial Period to the Outbreak of the Civil War (Minneapolis, 1944) pp. 5-50. ^Several sources offering helpful Insights Into Finney's career are available. His own Lectures on Revivals of Religion has been edited by William G. McLoughlln and reprinted (Cambridge, Mass., i960). The reprint Includes a valuable Introduction by the editor. Whitney R. Cross, In The Burned-over District; The Social and Intellectual His tory of Enthusiastic Religion In Western New York, I8GO- 1850 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1950)T studies Finney's activities In conjunction with the westward thrust of New England culture (I5I-I72). For general treatments of revivalism see Bernard A. Welsberger, They Gathered at the River (Boston, 1958), and McLoughlln's Modern Revivalism (New York, 1959). 5 In New England, orthodox Calvinism was threatened not so much by emotional evangelism as by the rapid spread of Unltarlanlsm, which originated In the late eighteenth cen tury.