The American Reformation: The Politics of Religious Liberty, Charleston and New York 1770-1830 by Susanna Christine Linsley A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Susan M Juster, Chair Professor David J. Hancock Professor Mary C. Kelley Associate Professor Mika Lavaque-Manty Assistant Professor Daniel Ramirez © Susanna Christine Linsley 2012 Acknowledgements During one of the more challenging points in the beginning stages of the dissertation project, my advisor, Sue Juster, gave me some advice that I continue to refer to when I find myself in need of guidance. She told me that there was no secret to getting back on track. I just needed to allow myself to take some time and remember why I loved history. This observation was one of the many sage and trenchant insights Sue has offered me throughout graduate school. I cannot thank her enough for providing both such a practical and an inspiring model for scholarship. I have also been fortunate to work with a committee whose brilliance and wisdom is unmatched. Mary Kelley has been a constant source of support throughout my time in Ann Arbor. Her unfailing trust in me and in my project gave me the confidence to push my work in directions I would not have thought possible before I began. David Hancock has always asked good questions, spurring me to think deeply both about context and about broader sets of connections. His own rigorous scholarship and teaching have served as great examples to me. Dan Ramirez arrived at Michigan during the later stages of the dissertation, but his presence and participation have shaped it in important ways. I will always be grateful for Dan for taking a chance on an early Americanist. Mika Lavaque- Manty has been the ideal cognate member. One great joy of this project was the many opportunities I had to talk with Mika about my work. He offered great insights about how to integrate history and political theory and his wit and humor kept things in perspective. ii Beyond my committee, the Michigan community has provided the perfect environment to pursue graduate study. The idea for this project grew out of an Early Modern European History seminar with Jonathan Sheehan. Of all of my many debts, I owe one of my greatest to Jonathan for introducing me to new literatures and new approaches that have been critical in shaping not just this project but also the way I understand history. Several professors at Michigan and at other institutions who I unfortunately never had the opportunity to work with in the classroom nevertheless provided important feedback at different times throughout the project, from its inception to the very last stages of writing. Dena Goodman, Martha Jones, Debra Dash-Moore, Karla Goldman and Monica Najar all were generous enough to give me comments on different ideas in the project. As the leader of the dissertation seminar, Leslie Pincus helped me, and all of the participants, learn how to transition from student to scholar. I will always be especially grateful that I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn from Leslie. I was particularly lucky to begin studying history as an undergrad at Mount Holyoke College under the guidance of Joseph Ellis. Professor Ellis taught me to trust my instincts, and to always strive for beautiful prose and to tell great stories while still engaging in rigorous scholarship. Last, but certainly not least, the staff in the history department, especially Lorna Altsetter and Kathleen King, made the logistics of graduate school and dissertation writing and research comprehensible. Their expertise and compassion are legendary. I am also happy I have the chance to acknowledge my classmates at Michigan who quickly became my friends and who will remain my respected colleagues as we move on from Ann Arbor. Katie Cangany, Jennifer Palmer, Allison Abra, and Dan iii Livesay have become mentors as well as friends. I know I will continue to count on their wisdom and encouragement. Elspeth Martini, Sara Lampert, Andrew Ross, Laura Ferguson, Kirsten Leng, David Trout, Kithika St. John, Lauren Hirshberg, Nilanjana Majumdar, and Crystal Chung have all been inspiring models of what doing history should look like, and they certainly made the last few years much more fun. Andrew Ross finished a semester before me, but even before then, I looked to him to pave the way through dissertation writing and onto a career in history. I am grateful that Andrew has allowed me to follow his lead. I will always be thankful for my weekly conversations with Laura Ferguson. Laura has read nearly every chapter of the dissertation, and I have had the great privilege of taking on most of academic and personal challenges of graduate school with her. Finally, I have been very fortunate to participate in several different writing groups while drafting the dissertation. Through them I learned how necessary it is to treat writing as a collaborative process. Ken Garner demonstrated an unparalleled generosity when he offered to edit several chapters at the eleventh hour. Many thanks to Colleen Woods, Jared Secord, Federico Helfgott, Angela Parker, Daniel Hershenzon, Ronit Stahl, Ben Graham, Pedro Monaville, Rebecca Grapevine, and Jennifer Solheim for reading different pieces of the dissertation. This work could not have been completed without the generous support of the University of Michigan Department of History, Rackham Graduate School, the Sweetland Writing Center, the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina, and the Gilder Lerhman Foundation. I am also grateful for library and archive staffs at the South Caroliniana Library, the Baptist Historical Collection at Furman University, the South Carolina Historical Society, the South Carolina Catholic Diocese iv Archives, the South Carolina Huguenot Society, the Jewish Collection at the College of Charleston, the American Antiquarian Society, the Presbyterian Historical Society, the New-York Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the American Irish Historical Society, the Corporation of the Collegiate Churches of New York, Trinity Church Archives, All Souls Unitarian Church, and the Congregation Shearith Israel. Finally, my family has been the greatest source of support and inspiration throughout this process. Elliott Linsley and Kristen Musto provided lodging and wonderful company during trips through Boston. Now in Evanston, they have also encouraged a family Big-10 rivalry. Johanna Linsley and Jan Mertens regularly passed on very important internet memes. But even more importantly, Johanna has been a model of how to work and live with a passion for art and knowledge. Though an engineer by profession, Ben Morris is a true humanist at heart. My life and my work are better now that he is in it. My parents, Kathy and Austin Linsley, were my first teachers, a role they have never relinquished. They continue to be the most creative thinkers and insatiable readers that I know. I am profoundly humbled by their example. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………….. ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………… vii Introduction……………………………………………………………….. 1 Chapter 1: Incorporation: Civil and Religious Liberty in Revolutionary Charleston and New York…………………………………………………….. 23 Chapter 2: Constitutionalizing God………………………………………. 64 Chapter 3: Religious Liberty on Trial…………………………………….. 112 Chapter 4: Competition and Coexistence………………………………… 174 Chapter 5: Christian Union……………………………………………….. 224 Chapter 6: Christian Pluralism……………………………………………. 269 Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 334 Bibliography………………………………………………………………. 341 vi ABSTRACT The American Reformation: The Politics of Religious Liberty, Charleston and New York 1770-1830 by Susanna Christine Linsley Chair: Susan M. Juster This study argues that churches were important sites in which early Americans invented and participated in politics. Revolutionary Charlestonians and New Yorkers— Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish alike—self-consciously engaged in a reformation of their religious societies and, as a result, forged new patterns of religious conflict and accommodation that shaped how they understood government, partisanship, toleration, and pluralism. Practical politics took place every week in religious societies (not just on Election Day), making them important sites to help us understand the mechanics, culture, and lived experience of early national politics. This work draws on church records, personal papers, court cases, controversial literature, pamphlets, and periodicals, and brings together diverse historiographies such as Atlantic history, Early Modern European history, and political theory. Through these literatures and sources, this study provides important insights into the practice of politics, the boundaries between church and state, and the uses and abuses of religious difference in the founding of a liberal democracy. vii Introduction The twenty-first century New York City skyline is an iconic image. The distinctive silhouette of skyscrapers, rising nearly out of the water’s edge, visually reinforces the city’s role as a capital of finance, industry, entertainment, and diplomacy. For colonial New Yorkers, the view of the eighteenth-century city also called attention to the powerful economic, political, and cultural institutions that served, supported, and sometimes exploited the 25,000 inhabitants of the colonial port. However, on the eve of