AMERICA'S MISSIONS: THE HOME MISSIONS MOVEMENT AND THE STORY OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC A Dissertation by BRIAN RUSSELL FRANKLIN Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Charles E. Brooks Committee Members, Katherine Carté Engel Troy O. Bickham Dennis Berthold Head of Department, David Vaught December 2012 Major Subject: History Copyright 2012 Brian Russell Franklin ABSTRACT This dissertation seeks to enhance our understanding of the early American republic by providing a study of the home missions movement from 1787 to 1845. The home missions movement was a nationwide, multi-denominational religious movement, led by mission societies, and aimed at bringing the Protestant gospel to the various peoples of the states and territories. A history of this movement not only fills a gap in the historiography of early American religious history, but also enlightens our understanding of the broader socio-political world of the early republic. The founding years of the home missions movement, from 1787 to 1815, were led by Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. Despite interdenominational competition at home and diplomatic tension with Britain, Protestants tended to cooperate both interdenominationally and transatlantically in order to achieve broader, evangelical goals in their missions. Home missions societies also shed light on a third form of cooperation: cooperation between church and state. We can better understand the relationship between church and state in the early republic by rejecting the idea that these two entities functioned separately. Instead, they functioned within a complex system of cooperation, evidenced by consistent government subsidization of and participation in missions to both white settlers and Indians, as well as by a broad culture of cooperation with Protestant projects in American society. During the early antebellum period, the home missions movement underwent a significant transformation, from functioning as a nationwide group of loosely-affiliated societies, which focused on ii nearby peoples, to a highly-centralized affair, dominated by a handful of national mission societies, which focused on the salvation of the entire nation. The growing importance of the population of the Mississippi Valley and the national trend toward a more centralized government and economic system played the two key roles in this transformation. This centralization – religious, economic, and political – helped give rise to the antimission movement, a nationwide Protestant protest against mission societies. This movement sheds light on the religious and ideological underpinnings of antebellum sectionalism. iii To Janelle An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. ~ Proverbs 31:10 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank the hard-working members of my dissertation committee, Charles Brooks, Kate Engel, Troy Bickham, and Dennis Berthold. Drs. Brooks and Engel in particular have offered piercing (but helpful!) criticism, unfailing encouragement, and untold amounts of their time throughout my graduate career. David Vaught, in his stellar teaching and constant support, has been a model, and I thank him for it. In all of my archival work, I experienced a steady stream of knowledge, professionalism, kindness, and helpfulness. I want to thank Bill Sumners and Taffey Hall at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives (Nashville, TN); Betsy Dunbar and Deborah Broekhoven at the American Baptist Historical Society (Atlanta, GA); Lisa Jacobson, Leah Gass, David Koch, and Elaine Shilstut at the Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia, PA); and Cheryl Gunselman at the Washington State University Library and Archives (Pullman, WA). Finally, I want to thank those who have supported me personally, and have therefore made my professional success possible: my friends at Westminster Presbyterian Church for their fellowship; my mentor Dr. Mike Williams at Dallas Baptist University for his zealous encouragement; the staff at Starbuck's on Villa Maria for great coffee and conversation during my months of writing; my parents, in-laws, siblings, and grandparents, for thinking the best of me, even when I was most certainly not at my best; and most importantly, my wife Janelle and my son Jonathan, for steadfastly believing in me and investing in me along this long and difficult road. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. ii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 The Home Missions Movement and the Historiography of the Early Republic ............................................................................................... 3 The Historiography of Home Missions ................................................ 10 Chapter Outline of Dissertation ............................................................ 15 II THE FOUNDING OF THE HOME MISSIONS MOVEMENT ............... 20 Colonial and Revolutionary Missions .................................................. 22 Early Missionary Organization and the Climate for the Home Missions Movement, 1783-1795 .......................................................... 24 The Climate for Home Missions in the 1790s ...................................... 30 The Founding of the Home Missions Movement ................................. 33 A Summary of American Home Mission Societies, 1796-1810 .......... 51 Transatlantic Home Mission Societies ................................................. 54 Atlantic Missionary Inspiration Goes Both Ways ................................ 57 Sharing Missions and Missionaries ...................................................... 62 Conclusion: American Nationalism and Evangelical Internationalism 64 III HOME MISSIONS AND THE COOPERATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE .............................................................................................. 68 The Formation of State Constitutions and the Myth of Separation ...... 74 State Constitutions and Religion: From Revolution to Constitution .... 76 National Disestablishment, not Complete Disestablishment: Religion and Government in the United States Constitution .............................. 81 vi Page Religion and the State Constitutions After the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution .................................................................................. 84 Religious Establishment in the States .................................................. 86 Thomas Jefferson and the Relationship Between Church and State .... 89 Thomas Jefferson: Cheese, Church, and State ..................................... 91 A Federal Interpretation of the Constitution and the Early Republic .. 95 State Provisions for Religion and Morality – Cooperation .................. 98 Home Missions and the Cooperation Between Church and State ........ 103 John Schermerhorn, Samuel Mills, and the Missionary Tour of 1812-1813 ............................................................................................. 105 Church, State, and the Tax-Based Subsidization of Missions .............. 106 General Jackson Gives the Missionaries a Free Ride........................... 108 Government Officials and the De Facto State Subsidization of Missions ............................................................................................... 111 Schermerhorn and Mills Visit the Mississippi and Louisiana Territories ............................................................................................. 116 Home Missions and a Culture of Cooperation in American Governments ........................................................................................ 118 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 123 IV THE COOPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE IN PROTESTANT MISSIONS TO AMERICAN INDIANS, 1789-1815 ............................... 125 Missionary Societies Assess Church-State Cooperation in Indian Missions ............................................................................................... 130 State Governments, State Missionary Societies, and Indian Missions, 1796-1810 ............................................................................................. 133 New York Missionary Society: Chickasaw and Iroquois, 1799-1804 . 134 1804: The New York Missionary Society in Review .......................... 141 The Presbyterian Church in the USA and the Standing Committee on Missions ............................................................................................... 144 The Missionary (Mis)Adventures of Gideon Blackburn ...................... 147 The General Government Aids Blackburn's Mission to the Cherokee 153 The Presbyterian Mission to the Wyandot ........................................... 155 The Cherokee Removal Crisis of 1807-1809 ......................................