Christopher Grasso. A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century . Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. viii + 511 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8078-2471-9.

Reviewed by Gaspare J. Saladino

Published on H-Law (June, 1999)

In A Speaking Aristocracy, Christopher Gras‐ rate charter government and established Congre‐ so, associate professor of history at St. Olaf Col‐ gational church. educated both minis‐ lege, demonstrates how the learned men of eigh‐ ters and political leaders. Thus, state, church, and teenth-century Connecticut transformed public college cooperated to perpetuate the moral order. discourse and established their authority through Chapter One examines "The Power of the Pub‐ dominating the production of formal speech and lic Covenant." In 1708, the legislature adopted the writing directed to the multitude. Focusing on the Saybrook Platform, "a state-sanctioned profession intellectual culture of Yale College and the world of faith and a state-enforced system of church dis‐ of public speech, writing, and print, Grasso uses cipline" (p. 41). In sermons, the mainstay of the case studies of individual speakers and writers colony's few printers, ministers instructed people and specifc public debates to show 1) how publi‐ to obey the magistrates, or else God's wrath would cations and speeches fashioned (and were fash‐ descend upon the community. People listened-- ioned in) their cultural and rhetorical contexts; 2) without contributing to the conversation. When how involvement in public discourse helped to es‐ the Great Awakening's evangelical itinerant tablish the learned man's social function, and 3) preachers weakened this public covenant's pow‐ how ideas about the moral order changed over er, ministers demanded that the state enforce or‐ time in the face of profound social, economic, and thodoxy. In 1742, the legislature enacted an anti- political developments. itinerancy law, prompting former minister Elisha "Meaning and Moral Order," Part One of the Williams to publish The Essential Rights and Lib‐ three parts into which this book falls, covers the erties of Protestants (1744), a plea for separation years 1700 to 1750. Congregational ministers, of church and state. Civil government, argued seeking to create a moral order, were the primary Williams, was instituted to protect property and public speakers and writers, instructing the multi‐ individual rights (including liberty of conscience), tude on religion and politics to support the corpo‐ not to resolve ecclesiastical disorders; because the H-Net Reviews

Saybrook Platform violated English laws, he con‐ best lawyers in the legislature, Clap used a com‐ cluded, it was invalid. By 1750, covenant language mon-law defense to protect Yale's rights and pow‐ was inefective in legitimating "church-state coer‐ ers against both legislative intrusion and the stu‐ cion in the name of the moral order" (p. 67). dents' right of redress. He carried the day, but his Chapter Two, "Only a Great Awakening: victory was Pyrrhic; increasing student disrup‐ Jonathan Edwards and the Regulation of Religious tions forced his resignation. Clap's insistence on Discourse," focuses on perhaps the greatest mind Yale's religious character had prompted his oppo‐ of the colonial era. Reacting to the Awakening's nents to emphasize the college's other roles--espe‐ upheaval, Reverend Edwards attempted to make cially training prospective lawyers. In fghting the purer. Edwards be‐ Clap, students had used the courts, legal language, lieved and argued that Puritan moral order could and republican political theory. Consequently, be revived by controlling the terms of public reli‐ "public discourse's center of gravity began to shift gion; in his vision, ministers would fx the mean‐ from sermons and sola scriptura to a republic of ings of words used in religious public discourse. letters dominated by learned lawyers" (p. 184). Unhappy with church membership's lax stan‐ Parts Two and Three of A Speaking Aristocra‐ dards, Edwards wanted to limit membership by cy cover the years from 1750 to 1800. Several having pastors instruct parishioners about the groups, especially lawyers, challenged ministers' meaning of terms used in their professions of hegemony as the speaking aristocracy, and public faith before accepting them as "God's People." In discourse became more secularized. This transfor‐ response, critics denounced Edwards as a tyrant. mation fowed from the Awakening's evangelical Chapter Three, "Legalism and Orthodoxy: preaching, the Enlightenment's literary sensibility Thomas Clap and the Transformation of Legal Cul‐ and enlightened science, the American Revolu‐ ture," concentrates on the leader of a vital Con‐ tion's republican ideology and legal reasoning, the necticut institution. Reverend Clap, the president popular press's spectacular growth, and ideas of of Yale College (1740-1766), believed that "a har‐ liberal capitalism associated with economic ex‐ monious moral order had to be grounded in or‐ pansion. Ministers still linked religion and poli‐ thodox belief, and orthodoxy had to be defended tics, but the multitude increasingly heeded other by the law" (p. 148). An admirer of New England's voices, some from their own ranks. Politics be‐ Puritan founders, Clap sought to maintain and came the rage. More than ever, the speaking aris‐ transmit to posterity "the purity of doctrine, disci‐ tocracy appealed to the emotions. A burgeoning pline, and worship" (p. 178). Central to Clap's pur‐ print culture turned the multitude into an in‐ pose, Yale ("a school of prophets") would propa‐ formed citizenry; books, newspapers, broadsides, gate the faith and instruct ministers. At a time and pamphlets covering a myriad of topics prolif‐ when the legal profession and the power of legal erated. discourse were both growing rapidly, Clap educat‐ Part Two, "Cultivation and Enlightenment," ed himself in criminal, common, and ecclesiasti‐ focuses on how the explosion of knowledge re‐ cal law. He encouraged the legislature to adopt shaped the community and ways in which laws ensuring religious orthodoxy--and, using the learned men disseminated knowledge. For exam‐ law, he strove to establish Yale as a religious soci‐ ple, Chapter Four, "The Experimental Philosophy ety, imposing on it orthodoxy and harsh disci‐ of Farming: Jared Eliot and the Cultivation of Con‐ pline. Defending their natural rights of con‐ necticut," examines a learned Congregational science, Yale students petitioned the legislature minister's venture into a diferent feld of inquiry. for redress. In 1763, arguing against the colony's Eliot hoped that his published essays on experi‐

2 H-Net Reviews mental agriculture, by promoting economic pros‐ ministers also would educate all social classes perity and moral regeneration, would establish "a about politics. Education, Stiles taught, was criti‐ single moral and economic order" (p. 191). Agri‐ cal to America's rising glory; ministers and reli‐ cultural communities, especially New England's gious ofceholders ("The Standing Order") would nucleated villages and middling family farms, shape the public mind. Because he wanted ofce‐ would be linked through cooperation. To create a holders to be religious men, Stiles attacked ofce‐ dialogue across class lines, Eliot used a plain, con‐ holding deists (many of them lawyers) during and versational writing style, laced with Biblical allu‐ after the Revolution. sions and homely proverbs. Blending classical re‐ Part Three, "Revolution and Steady Habits," publicanism and liberal capitalism, he encour‐ examines the relationships among publication, aged common and gentleman farmers to cooper‐ politics, religion, and literature. In Chapter Six, ate with one another and work for themselves "Print, Poetry, and Politics: John Trumbull and the and the community. Eliot's inexpensive publica‐ Transformation of the Public Sphere," Grasso uses tions were circulated by America's greatest print‐ lawyer Trumbull's literary career (1770-1782) to er, . Eliot also promoted coop‐ illustrate the changes that occurred in public writ‐ eration between the colonies and Britain, but his ing, focusing on how Trumbull, a poet-satirist, accommodating approach to the mother country adapted and commented on four overlapping and put him out of step with most Americans, who in competing models of discourse: 1) In the "social the resisted what they deemed British world of polite letters," Trumbull believed that tyranny. conversation and writing among ladies and gen‐ In Chapter Five, "Christian Knowledge and tlemen cultivated genteel sociability and refned Revolutionary New England: The Education of their tastes for literature, though he also tried to ," Grasso considers one of Eliot's col‐ balance aristocratic politeness with civic virtue; 2) leagues. In 1765 Stiles, a Congregational minister in "building a civic forum in the Connecticut and former Christian philosophe, became an press," Trumbull sought to develop newspapers as evangelical Puritan, as he recoiled from the tur‐ "a republican civic forum," reaching all classes moil of the Stamp Act Crisis. A student of New and unifying the community (his anonymous con‐ England history proud of his region's English her‐ tributions attacked ministers as lazy, pedantic, in‐ itage, Stiles saw its settlement as a stage of the sto‐ competent, and intolerant); 3) in "satirizing the ry of the struggle for religious and civil liberty. community of speakers," Trumbull lampooned Seeing the Stamp Act as the beginning of the end speech in his notable M'Fingal: A Modern Epic of Anglo-American cooperation, Stiles preached Poem (Writing anonymously, Trumbull ridiculed that the act's repeal was an example of God's mer‐ town-meeting speeches as the work of dema‐ cy. During the Revolution, he argued that Ameri‐ gogues; town meetings were not truly democratic. cans should rely on God, who would guide them He also satirized religious enthusiasts and to independence. Shaken by the Revolution's dis‐ prophets who preyed on people's fears and super‐ ruptive forces, Stiles believed that churches need‐ stitions); 4) in "competing in the literary market‐ ed revitalization; Americans were a free people, place," a mundane Trumbull anticipated the liter‐ he thought, but not yet a holy people. Yale's presi‐ ary marketplace and campaigned for copyright dent from 1778 to 1795, Stiles thought that Yale's protection for authors, whose writings were their primary role was to educate ministers who, as property. zealous Calvinist preachers, would work for In Chapter Seven, "Reawakening the Public church revitalization, spreading Christianity's Mind: Timothy Dwight and the Rhetoric of New eternal truths. From state-supported churches,

3 H-Net Reviews

England," Grasso turns back to another Congrega‐ tors and politicians." Although the learned elite tional minister who also was a prolifc epic poet. still dominated public discourse, the common In seeking to create a moral order, Dwight, who man spoke out more, especially in newspapers. succeeded Stiles as president of Yale College Once considered vehicles to enlighten and inform (1795-1817), emphasized the myth of America as a rational citizenry, newspapers became partial the site of God's millennial kingdom and the supe‐ and partisan vehicles, in which words became riority of New England's churches, schools, vil‐ weapons used to censure political opponents. lages, and middling farms. Because New England When, as during the Revolution, the aggrieved society was the clergy's creation and because the common man resorted for redress to town meet‐ Protestant church was the principal corporation ings, special conventions, and committees of cor‐ in God's moral government, Dwight gave the cler‐ respondence, "The Standing Order" declared that, gy the primary role in establishing the moral or‐ since the Revolution was over, freemen again der. Representing state-supported churches, a should defer to the governance of benign magis‐ Yale-educated clergy--steeped in the Holy Bible, trates. Lawyers controlled politics, but hostility to Augustan literature, and republican theory-- them grew, making them the betes noires of Con‐ would enlighten people whose happiness was necticut politics. Since lawyers displaced clergy‐ based on being virtuous and accumulating knowl‐ men as the state's principal leaders, tension devel‐ edge. Calling for a millennial Christian republic, oped between the two groups. Lawyers were de‐ Dwight made Christian public virtue--the love of scribed as competitive, selfsh, devious, and in‐ doing good--the central issue of public discourse. triguing villains who used their eloquence and Dwight did not use newspapers because, by en‐ learning to exploit people. Clergymen were la‐ couraging public debate, they validated difering beled essentially irrelevant, intellectually preten‐ opinions. Dwight praised the sovereign multitude, tious, and excessively somber. but he demanded that it defer to "The Standing In his conclusion, "The New Politics of Revolu‐ Order," which included the majority Federalist tion and Steady Habits," Grasso shows that by the Party. Connecticut's Democratic-Republicans as‐ 1790s, Connecticut, although still strongly linked sailed "Pope" Dwight as part of their challenge to to its Puritan past, had undergone signifcant the hated church-state alliance. changes. Competing religious denominations had In Chapter Eight, "Political Characters and multiplied; the state's economy had been integrat‐ Public Words," Grasso assesses the relationships ed into the national and international economies; among language, character, and public life. In the and people defned themselves ideologically as ei‐ 1780s and 1790s, politics dominated the public ther Federalists or Republicans. Bitter partisan mind, and public discourse, "more than ever be‐ politics dominated conversation and print. Spear‐ fore, became wedded to the exercise of political headed by Dwight, Federalists criticized the demo‐ and cultural power" (p. 284). As the opportunities cratic and secular changes wrought by the Revo‐ and forums for speaking and publishing multi‐ lution and infdel philosophers and called for a re‐ plied, the speaking aristocracy expanded to en‐ turn to the laws, institutions, customs, and faith of compass lawyer-orators, pamphleteers, and other the Puritan fathers. Federalists dismissed Republi‐ polemicists who spoke and wrote about party pol‐ cans as sinful, vulgar, and drunken Jacobins. Led itics and political theory. At Yale, an altered cur‐ by lawyer Abraham Bishop, Republicans accused riculum and student organizations cultivated Federalists of using their learning and control of rhetorical arts to improve students' chances of en‐ speech and print to manipulate and fool the mul‐ hancing their reputations following graduation. titude. Seeking widespread political participation, The "school of prophets" became "a school of ora‐ Republicans reached people in taverns and cofee

4 H-Net Reviews houses and by traveling about distributing cam‐ lawyers, even though they both were learned in paign literature. Although Republican leaders crit‐ the law, refecting the growing importance of le‐ icized Federalist leaders, they also were learned gal discourse. men, and they too stifed public discourse when Although Chapter Six is a superb case study of the multitude grew skeptical or recalcitrant. John Trumbull, a literary man who became a Connecticut Federalists retained power in lawyer during his most productive literary years, 1800, but Thomas Jeferson's election as President Grasso does not sufciently engage how Trum‐ demonstrated that public discourse was forever bull's legal training infuenced his writings. When altered. Citizens now conceived of "public dis‐ in 1782 Trumbull expanded M'Fingal, what had course not just as the speech and writing of been Revolutionary propaganda emerged as con‐ learned elites to the people but the expression of servative American literature, in which Trumbull, the opinions and desires of the people through who in 1780 launched a full-time law practice, de‐ representative voices chosen from among them" nounced weak government, paper money, and (p. 282). But, if Connecticut was no longer a "Puri‐ vulgar democracy. Was the lawyer speaking? Nor tan aristocracy," it was not yet a "Yankee democra‐ do the remaining chapters use case studies of cy." lawyers, except Abraham Bishop, who practiced Even though A Speaking Aristocracy is intel‐ little law. Yet, by 1800, lawyer-orators were the se‐ lectual history frst and foremost, Grasso's putting nior partners of the speaking aristocracy. of ideas in historical context has produced one of In Chapter Eight, Grasso asserts that the Unit‐ the best all-round studies of eighteenth-century ed States Constitution was the most important is‐ Connecticut. Some quibbles come to mind, howev‐ sue submitted to the people after 1787, but, be‐ er. First, the book lacks a bibliography, which is cause no signifcant debate on it occurred in Con‐ unfortunate as Grasso mines an array of manu‐ necticut, he dismisses its ratifcation in a para‐ script and printed primary sources--sermons, es‐ graph. Perhaps he should have examined the says, speeches, letters, journals, newspaper arti‐ rhetorical strategies of the advocates of a strong cles, and poems. His familiarity with many of the national government, before and during the Con‐ 3,500 Connecticut imprints is staggering. The lack stitution's drafting and during its ratifcation. In of a bibliography is ameliorated, however, an ap‐ particular, it would have been illuminating to pendix of election sermons (1710-1800) and nu‐ have turned a spotlight on Oliver Ellsworth and merous historiographical footnotes on the vast Roger Sherman. A lawyer educated at Yale and secondary literature. A note on the literature of Princeton, Ellsworth rose to political prominence the Awakening, too long for a footnote, appears as as a young man after the Revolution, in defance another appendix. of Connecticut's system of political seniority. For the most part, the frst fve chapters-- Ellsworth was a elegate to the Federal Convention largely traversing the colonial period--are under‐ of 1787; he published thirteen newspaper essays standably case studies of the writings and speech‐ (signed "A Landholder") supporting the Constitu‐ es of Congregational ministers. Even so, case stud‐ tion; and he was the dominant speaker in Con‐ ies of such prominent lawyers as Jared Ingersoll necticut's ratifying convention. Moreover, his es‐ and William Samuel Johnson (both of whom ar‐ says and speeches circulated widely. Self-educat‐ gued against Clap in the Connecticut legislature in ed, a former shoemaker and a delegate to the Fed‐ 1763) might have provided some more balance. To eral Convention, the redoubtable Sherman also have chosen only Clap, a minister, and Elisha defended the Constitution in newspaper articles Williams, a former minister, is hardly fair to (signed "A Countryman" and "A Citizen of New

5 H-Net Reviews

Haven") and also spoke in the state's ratifying con‐ vention. Sherman's long and varied political ca‐ reer exemplifed the manner in which Connecti‐ cut's system of political seniority operated. Finally, in his conclusion's last paragraph, Grasso raises a series of questions, such as this one: "Is the transformation of public discourse in eighteenth-century New England a story about de‐ mocratization or the reconstitution of patriarchal hegemony?" He calls upon readers to answer this and other questions themselves, stating in conclu‐ sion that "The moral and political judgment we pass upon the eighteenth century ... may ultimate‐ ly have less to do with that century than with our own." This statement rings true, but one wishes that Grasso, a most thoughtful historian, had pro‐ vided his own judgments in light of his prodigious efort. Nevertheless, Grasso's readers will be con‐ vinced (as he probably is) that life in Connecticut in 1800 was fuller and more varied than it had been in 1700. Similarly, readers of this engrossing, superlative, and stylishly written study will be defnitely the richer for having perused it. Copyright (c) 1999 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tact [email protected].

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-law

Citation: Gaspare J. Saladino. Review of Grasso, Christopher. A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut. H-Law, H-Net Reviews. June, 1999.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3181

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

6